by Carole Bartoo 

These days you can find brightly colored tubes hooked to kids' backpacks or belt loops. Bottles of the stuff seemed to be on everyone's back-to-school shopping list. No matter how it is packaged, hand sanitizers can be found practically everywhere. If it's becoming a "cool" accessory for kids this flu season, health experts at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt say they are happy about it.

"Hand sanitizer works," said Buddy Creech, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital. "Washing well with soap and water is preferred if you can do it, but you can't always get to a sink."

This flu season, because of the H1N1 strain, there is a lot of attention to vaccination programs, and a lot of discussion about how to prevent the virus's spread. Since this particular strain appears to make a lot of younger people sick (older people may have some immunity already) good hand washing and hygiene could keep a lot more kids from missing time at school and with their friends.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says parents and their children should be careful to follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures. They advise families practice simple measures like coughing or sneezing into your sleeve and washing your hands frequently throughout the day.

As for hand sanitizers, the good news is there is no need to shop carefully and try to decipher the labels. About the only thing to be concerned about is keeping small ones from drinking it. Many of the products are alcohol-based and can lead to intoxication in small children.

"There's no real science to selecting a sanitizer," Creech said. "It's probably a good idea to use some kind of hand hygiene (wash or sanitizer) after blowing the nose or coughing into the hands while sick. Everyone would be well advised to wash with soap and water after bathroom use, and to use some kind of hand hygiene before meals since at any meal there are a lot of hand-in-mouth opportunities."  

Q&A from the CDC Web site:

What if soap and water are not available and alcohol-based products are not allowed in my facility?
Though the scientific evidence is not as extensive as that on hand washing and alcohol-based sanitizers, other hand sanitizers that do not contain alcohol may be useful for killing flu germs on hands.

What surfaces are most likely to be sources of contamination?
Germs can be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth. Droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air. Germs can be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets from another person on a surface like a desk, for example, and then touches their own eyes, mouth or nose before washing their hands.