Is It Ok To Use Non-alcohol Hand Sanitizer On Children?

Kids pick up germs everywhere, and they can't -- or they won't -- always stop to find a sink to wash their hands with soap and water. That's when hand sanitizer comes to the rescue. Children can use alcohol-free hand sanitizer, but that doesn't mean the alcohol-free variety is the best choice for your child.

Alcohol Content in Hand Sanitizers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends using a hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol content to effectively eliminate common disease agents. Both the CDC and MayoClinic.com state that alcohol-based hand sanitizer is safe for children as long as the children let the sanitizer completely dry from their hands. In a study posted on the CDC website and conducted by Scott A. Reynolds and colleagues at the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Mountain Home, Tennessee, hand sanitizers with 40 percent alcohol were less effective than those with 60 percent were.

Dangers of Alcohol in Hand Sanitizers

Some people worry about children using hand sanitizer with alcohol because of the possibility of alcohol poisoning. A 1-oz. bottle of hand sanitizer containing 60 percent isopropyl or ethyl alcohol could result in a deadly blood-alcohol level for a child if ingested, cites the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. Children should only use hand sanitizer containing alcohol under the supervision of an adult, and children under 3 should never use hand sanitizer containing alcohol. Ideally, children would use a hand sanitizer dispenser responsibly and only apply the recommended amount of liquid, but some children may abuse the dispenser and apply an excess amount of the sanitizer.

Effectiveness of Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizer

Although alcohol-free hand sanitizers cannot destroy common disease agents to the extent as those containing alcohol can, two different studies found that using alcohol-free hand sanitizers reduced the number of illness-related absences in elementary schools. In a study of 420 elementary school children by Woodward Laboratories published in the October 2000 "Family Medicine," use of alcohol-free hand sanitizer in the classroom reduced illness-related absence days by 41.9 percent. Educators had instructed children to use the hand sanitizer after coming into the classroom, before eating, and after using the restroom, in addition to regular hand washing with soap and water.

An October 2001 article published in the "Journal of School Nursing" compared the use of a placebo hand sanitizer to that of an alcohol-free hand sanitizer in the Los Alamitos Unified School District. After five weeks, students using the active product were 33 percent less likely to have an illness-related absence than the students were in the placebo group.

Proper Application

Children should apply only a dime-size drop of sanitizer to the hands. Then, they should thoroughly distribute the hand sanitizer by rubbing their hands together for 30 seconds, wetting all areas of the hands. Children should let their hands dry before touching anything. Hand sanitizer does sanitize, but it doesn't wash off dirt and grime in the way that soap and water do. If the hands are visibly dirty, children should use soap and water.