again, observed last night at a dinner/party, a group of people who got their hand sanitizer out and put it on the table, next to the napkins, for general use. No one seemed to think this odd, and a few even proceeded to pul smaller bottles from their purses and say "I bring mine everywhere". I was baffled.

I have actually never come across people using this stuff, and would never use it myself. I found it weird but obviously a lot of people find it normal.

Surreal.

I like to have one in my handbag, just in case I have grotty hands and can't wash them any other way. I'm not obsessive about it, I'm only on my second small bottle in about 5 years. I don't know if I'm the only one of my friends who uses it, probably not, but I couldn't say for sure.

I have some in the car for when I'm out if I'm eating and I do have some in the bathroom that gets used occasionally (ie when the kids had gastro a couple of weeks ago I used it fairly religiously) but at a dinner party? That's weird. What's wrong with washing your hands?

I have some in my nappy bag just in case I need to change DD in a place where there aren't hand washing sinks. Otherwise I don't use it.

really?? I just didn't know it was that common. I have never, ever used such a product or even thought of having it. learn something new everyday.

Bizarro. I carry a little bottle when I'm out with the kids, just in case there is nowhere to wash their hands for whatever reason. I've only ever used it a couple of times in a year.

I'm a teacher and I keep one on my desk. Some of the kids will use it after they have sneezed or blown their nose. I use it before recess and lunch as I don't want to think about all the germs i've collected from the kids, especially now that i'm pregnant. I teach year 1 so I see their hands/fingers in all kinds of places (up noses or in mouths seems to be their place of choice).

I have some in my bag. Handy if I've patted a dog or gone to a public bathroom that has no soap (happens quite a bit). At a dinner party I'd just go wash my hands though. I don't think it's been a common consumer product for that long...maybe 10 years at the most.

I have one on the change table, one in the nappy bag, one in my handbag & one on my desk at work. Heaps of people at my work use it.

I keep a bottle in my hand bag and use it after exiting pubilc toilets so I can hold the door handle. I also use it in flu season quite regularly. We have it in the bathrooms and the kitchen. I sound like a germ phobe but I assure you I'm not.

amazing, AMAZING.

how bizarre!!!!

We used to keep one in the car. I always have one in my bag, DP always has one in his too.

I use it quite regularly.

I see hand sanitiser everywhere. There's a pump at the gym, I see bottles of it on people's desks at work (probably due to our internal Flu awareness campaign) and I keep one in my makeup bag, especially for after the 'turn to each other and offer a sign of peace' hand shaking portion of church mass. Also because I travel on public transport, which you know, eww. Petrie dish of cold and flu germs.

Never touch the stuff, unless I cough into my hand at childcare and then I use theirs.

Germs are good for immunity people and help prevent auto immune diseases.

I carry it with me, but wouldn't take it out at a table.

notthesame- do you actually pull it out just after you have shaken hands???

soshal girl- who are you???? who were you more to the question.

I have a little one in my bag and when one of us gets a nasty cold/gastro, a pump bottle goes on the dining table for general use. But I wouldn't whip one out at a restaurant. That's weird!

I see it more and more often. It's ridiculous and a total advertising scam; people just getting sucked in by all those ads ranting on about 'terrrible germs'.

can I ask, genuinely, do you find it limits who gets gastro in your family?

I carry it when out to use it when i can't get to the bathroom (or can't be bothered to go to the bathroom) & wash my hands before eating or whenever really.

It has been invaluble when travelling O/S.

Don't see what's so bizzare or AMAZING about it LOL. It's a convenience product that's all.

I keep one in my bag and use it when I'm out, after changing a nappy etc... Also might use a bit on my 5 year olds hands before she eats if we are out.
I prefer good old soap and water when at home.

Not straight after shaking hands (so rude!), but because communion is soon after, I do it as I'm about to stand and take the host. I figure that I'll be handling something that's going to be consumed, I should probably have clean hands. If we shook hands after communion, I'd just wait until I got home to wash my hands.


Genuine question: as adults, are our immune systems still constantly developing? I always thought it was in childhood where germs would be good to strengthen immunity, and it wouldn't make such a difference when you were older.

I have a small one in my purse and a pump at home.

The one in the purse if for when I have to change a nappy or got to the toilet and there is nowhere to was my hands. At home I use it when changing poo accidents or if there is gastro or other contagious illness in the house.

The situation described by the OP is just odd!

It is actually very useful stuff and if used in the right circumstance you can still expose children to enough germs to build up their imnune system.

Red door hand washing has been shown to prevent illness spreading this is just more effective at killing germs I would imagine combined with other hygiene measure it would.

I have one in my handbag. Mostly for after I change DS if there is no soap in the toilets, use it after having to use a particularly dirty public toilet. Mostly use it once a week after my dance class... there are some.. erm dirty people that turn up occassionaly. Makes me feel a bit better thats all.

M

I hate the stuff - we have it bought for us at work but the only time I've been sick from work, it wouldn't have saved me. I remember being at a conference at the height of the swine flu hysteria and watching this woman use her hand sanitized every five minutes, even while she was sitting there listening to the speakers. Was tempted to tell her that an anti bacterial would not protect against a virus!

I have a bottle in my handbag, and DP has one in his work bag. We both use them before eating, and afterwards sometimes, if we've been eating takeaway & feel dirty.
I use mine after public toilets instead of using soap and water.

We've also got a pump bottle in the bathroom next to the liquid soap, which I use because it treats my skin better than hand soap does. There's one in the baby's room next to the change table too, which I have every intention of using instead of soap for the same reason.

I haven't bought into the 'evil germs' advertising, I don't use it every time I use money, or shake hands etc, just before eating if I'm out in public.

I don't think it's weird to put some out for guests at a dinner party why waste water washing your hands when you can do it that way?

OMG are people for real? I'd hate to think what chemicals are in it.

oh, I just found it amazing, because I have never come across it. Genuine amazement that I had been so sheltered when quite obviously, as replies show, it is quite common.

I first got put onto this stuff when my ds was born in 2000. The checkout chick had it, and she wiped her hands with it after handling the meat from the meat department (I suppose it takes that grossness off if nothing else) and immediately added it to my nappy bag.

I had some experiences where I had to actually squirt it out in baby rooms on the change areas, so was glad to have it, as it did not make the mess that soap does in that situation.
now, we have antibac hand wipes in the glovebox of the car, and my handbag, more for times when ds has greasy gross hands, or any of us really. I use them when I fill the car up as we have a diesel car, and sometimes the pump is greasy and stuff.
We do have a pump bottle here, and I have a little one in my desk drawer, for if i have a cold so I can clean my hands after sneezing before i keep typing and/or answering the phone. Just means the whole office doesnt go down.

Weird that they brought it out at a restaurant - it leaves a yucky taste on your hands, so why use it for eating with hands?

A doctor once said to me "its not the 99.9% of germs that you need to worry about (and that these products kill) its the 0.1% that they DON'T kill that you need to worry about". In other words, you probably already have immunity from those that these products destroy - the ones they don't are the really bad ones that nothing will destroy.

So in answer to the OP no I don't use them. Did when I travelled OS but not anymore.

Actually the hand wash gels are an alcohol gel which would kill viruses (not than viruses are technically alive). The alcohol works by dehydrating the cells in bacteria and denaturing the proteins in viruses (may be wrong but I am remembering thishave a degree in microbiology from long ago).

Problem with many viruses is they are airborne and you breathe them in, but the hand washing will help to prevent spread by contact.


Mrs Widget-Its pretty much just alcohol, this is why if you use it too often your hands really dry out

Actually I can't tell you how many times DH has come out of public toilets with DS & said OMG they were foul we need the handsanitiser.

Our Dr's surgery has a huge pump of the stuff as did my hospitals maternity section, outside everyroom for all to use as they came in.

I would find it bit odd to see one at someones home for general use, where there's obviously hot water & soap available.

It has. DS had a bout and nobody else got it, not even DD. I know that if DS would just wash his hands PROPERLY we wouldn't need the bloody stuff, but while we're banging our heads against that particular brick wall, we'll have the sanitiser too so that fewer of us get gastro.

Yeah exactly. I would honestly prefer to swallow a bit of dirt than all the crap they put in it.

We have a tiny bottle in the car and in the nappy bag. I've also got a squirter bottle thing on the changetable in case I touch something gross and obviously I can't just leave DD2 there while I go wash my hands.

I use it on the DDs only if we've been somewhere gross and are then about to eat. I wipe them with a baby wipe then use the sanitizer. Likewise if I'm changing a nappy out and there's nowhere to wash hands.

I find it really quite appallingly rude to do it at a dinner party. Why wouldn't you just go wash your hands

Germs are constantly evolving, changing and getting stronger. It makes sense that we still need exposure to these during adulthood to keep our immune systems up to date for when we are eldery and not as able to fight off illness.

I honestly had no idea that there was a commercial product available for this. My first thought was "what's the point?" but then I thought that perhaps I was being too harsh without any evidence to back me up. So I spent 90 seconds googling. Looks like there are some studies underway to check out whether it's all a good idea or not.. but so far it seems to be NOT.

this page is as good a summary as any

I'd be saving my money

This. If I've just changed a sh*tty nappy I want my hands to be 'washed' before I hand the kids snacks etc.

I've one in my handbag that I use after nappy changes in the car or to wash toddler hands that touch every disgusting thing they see.

I've had the same bottle for quite a while and don't use it constantly.

OMG OP that is hilarious!!!!!!

I mostly carry a little tube around for those occasions you really need it, like today on my way to a cafe when I found a lost puppy and she was a bit dirty and needed a cuddle. Otherwise, I really don't use it very often. Seriously, we are all still alive and pretty sure this stuff only came onto the market a year or two ago anyway??

It's alcohol not "a bunch of chemicals". Seriously, if you spent any time in parks and park toilets and/or public toilets, camping or overseas and then wanted to eat you would like this product. Like anything, MODERATION and some common sense.
OP I find the story of having it on a table in someone's home at a dinner party completely absurd. I would have rolled my eyes and used the basin and soap as normal.

We use it at home everyday. Our toilet goes off the laundry and we keep a bottle at the laundry tub to use after the toilet. I have a tiny bottle in my handbag too.

Very very weird, in my view.

I have used it when travelling (OK, carried it around but always forgotten to actually use it) and have just bought some to put under the change table because I can't bear redressing DD2 with my hands still possibly pooey (I'm poo-phobic) when she's done a really bad one. I havén't actually used it so far. I think there is a theme emerging here...

It's basically alcohol, water & moisturiser. Probably better than what you'd find in hand soap.

I would never change a poo-soiled nappy without soap and water. Please help me understand this.
Where in your world do you go where water to wash your hands is not available?

Frankly I"m becoming slightly horrified that people would change a soiled nappy and think that a squirt of hand sanitiser is 'ok' for hygiene.

Wow, quite the urban butterfly, aren't you?

Some examples?

- Yesterday we went walking in Glen Lethnot as a family. No facilities.
- Last week we spent the day on a pretty remote beach. No facilities.

Devi If you actually actually haven't soiled your hands hand sanitiser would work better than water with no soap, or washing with water ineffectively (not for long enough washing all of the hand etc)

If you actually get dirty (poo on then hands), wash with water first then sanitiser .


Quite often parks have no hand washing facilities-maybe one tap, no soap. I think the hand sanitiser wins in that situation

I have changed many a poo in the car...in a park (they take the handles off taps these days).

twistedivy- where is Glen lethnot??

There are heaps of places where water isn't readily available. Have you never been on a longish trip and needed to change a nappy mid trip?

FWIW, when it's a nappy I usually take out the water bottle and give my hands a quick wash off with them and then the hand sanitiser. I don't really use it as a replacement for water so much as for soap.