Dr. Ana, pediatrician and co-founder of Pedi Pals, joins the show to talk about creating healthy hygiene routines for kids aged 3 to 7. From teaching independence to managing early body odor, she shares practical tips to help parents tackle common challenges.
Dr. Ana, pediatrician and co-founder of Pedi Pals, joins the show to talk about creating healthy hygiene routines for kids aged 3 to 7. From teaching independence to managing early body odor, she shares practical tips to help parents tackle common challenges.
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Project Parenthood is hosted by Chelsea Dorcich. A transcript is available as Simplecast.
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CHELSEA:
Today, I am super excited to have Dr. Ana on our episode. Dr. Ana is a board certified general pediatrician based in Texas. In 2019, she co-founded Pedi Pals with Dr. Sammy, a platform dedicated to educating parents about common pediatric issues and concerns, while also addressing topics that may not be covered during routine checkups.
Much like kids hygiene and care. Welcome Dr. Ana.
DR. ANA:
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
CHELSEA:
Yay. I'm so excited. I love all of the reels that you and, Dr. Sammy do with Pedi Pals and all the information you put out there. So I'm excited to bring it to our listeners. I think the first thing I wanted to just kind of address was, you know, why is it important to develop age appropriate, healthy hygiene routines for our kids?
DR ANA:
So for the bedtime routine, for example, I'll tell families, you know, to wrap up whatever was going on for the rest of the day, talk about what happened at school, take a few minutes and get all your ducks in a row, you know, and then you start with your nighttime routine. So putting on pajamas, washing your hands, taking a bath, if that's what.
Families choose to do, you know, at that time brushing your teeth. And this is when it's really important when you're doing these consistent routines. If a child has sensitive skin and they need extra moisturizer after you wash your hands before bed or when you wake up in the morning, that's when you'll moisturize at that moment.
So you're already putting it on that way. You get now two opportunities, morning and night at the least to put your moisturizer on.
CHELSEA:
Got it.
DR ANA:
And some kids might require more time like coming after school, washing your hands and putting your moisturizer on. Some might not need it as much, but if you have that expectation early on.
Then it's not something to do or to make a separate a part of the set routine sense.
CHELSEA:
So when, are t of products that you do his kind of hygiene routine?
DR ANA:
Yes. I love the Aveeno products. I use them myself for my family members. they have, there's an Aveeno face and body wash for children. Mm-hmm.
there's some for the babies and the infants and some for children. And then there's also a bubble bath with oat. and I find a lot of kids have sensitive skin. some, more so than ot these products tend to be have sense and chemicals irritate the skin. So I l specifically. but yea Yes, we are a fan too of I'm fully stuck now.
CHELSEA:
Oh, is there. I know, 'cause I know we like to talk, especially ages three to seven, there's a lot of, milestones with independence coming up and so is there a certain age we try to like, kind of empower kids to take on this hygiene routine for themselves in terms of bathing or. Yeah. And, you know, kids tend to, there's a range of development, right?
DR ANA:
Milestones that we see, you know, some children, you know, walk very quickly and some, you know, walk a little bit later. So there's going to be a range and you know, your children best and you know, how they receive information and how they use it. So this is going to be something that is going to be an active process that parents are going to need to take care of.
Okay. because they understand their Children. I think the best way to do initially is to model the behavior you want them to have. Right? you're there. You're their biggest role model. They more than what you tell them, they watch everything you do. and so the best thing to do is to embody the things that you want them to do and to make that part of your routine.
And initially you can start this from the time that they're an infant or a toddler, you know, and they might have a very small attention span. They might only come with you to the bathroom for a second and then run off, right? Or get distracted. But with consistency, you show them that this is what mom or dad does.
on a nightly basis. So I t there to model that behavi this is important for you to be important for them. around the time when they recomme a dentist by the age of o learning how to brush you you start these routines, the less pushback you're going to get from your child because it's going to be a part of their regular, right?
Just like when we start to wean off the bottle. If we start to wean it off, you know, at nine months or ten months, it's easier. If we start to wean it off at one or one and a half, it's going to take that much longer, right? So I think parents should use these routines in the same way. The earlier you can do it, the better.
And if you don't have the time to sit there and do this with your children, Just have them watch you do your routine. you know, as small or as long as that can be so that they know that this will be an expectation.
CHELSEA:
Okay. I love that. Yes. Modeling is so big and it's something that's it's such a, it's a free resource that we just, we take for granted.
DR ANA:
We don't realize how much we actually are modeling when we're doing it. so is there a certain age where you might, Okay. either encourage or or dissuade a child from bathing like showering by themselves. right. And this is going to be again based on child to child and the safety implications there, right?
Some kids might be more excitable and they might need extra supervision for longer, right? some might be, very cautious. You know, we've seen some kids are very cautious when they're learning to walk and they don't want to yeah. you know, just run and other kids are just jumping off right immediately.
So when it comes to bathing and nighttime routines, the involvement that a parent needs is going to be based on the personality and the behaviors of that child, right? But typically, as far as bathing and showering, I would say, And again, also based on the needs of that child's skin. And so some children, their skin can't handle showers or baths every day.
So typically a child, might only need bath two to three times a week. or if they're out in the yard getting dirty every night, they might need a quick rinse down. and you know, to clean off all the irritants and all the germs. but maybe not a long extended bath, right? Which could dry out their skin even more.
So these types of little implications are going to vary from child to child and then their maturity level is also going to play a role.
CHELSEA:
I love that you said, because that was one of my next questions I was thinking about is, you know, just I knew everyone is, it's going to be case by case and we can't make a, you know, one size fits all.
So I appreciate you giving all of that input to that. And for skipping showers, just one, you know, that was one of the questions I was like, because I know there's some kids that, you know, have skip nights for bathing or some kids. That, you know, it's an expectation you're, you're showering every night no matter what.
But I loved hearing that. Like, yes, each kid we have to look at their skin and what their skin needs or what were the daily activities. So kind of sounds like that's gonna play a role in determining that exact routine. Yeah, exactly. And some parents do feel like, you know, they. They automatically assume that that's an that's an expectation that their child needs to bathe every night or needs to use these, you know, and that might not be the case.
DR ANA:
You know, I think things like brushing your teeth consistency twice a day that there's definitely a benefit in reducing cavities and reducing problems moving forward. So that's one thing. It's like, nope, we got to do this every night, right? and Things like, you know, if they have hair that gets easily tangled, you know, and they might need to have the hair being brushed consistently.
They, some kids, their hair can't handle being washed every night, you know? But most kids in this age group, between three to seven, most of them don't need baths every day or long baths. And they don't require that, consistently. Yeah. Okay. That's great to know. Are there, common areas that tend to get forgotten.
Like I always think about, you know, there's always saying don't forget to wash behind your ears. Like, you know, I don't know if there's common areas that like maybe parents even forget to tell their kids like, I know maybe that we can't model or per se or, I don't know what you see. That's a good one.
I'm trying to think. I think the biggest one I get is, you know, creases. So, yeah, races and neck creases and private area creases and under arms, r are very quick. They're l bathroom and they're in a when they're using, you k two, it's like, okay, I'm run off. And I always tal it comes to constipation accidents because their g I got to get to my game.
I got to get to my friend, my brother, my sister, like they are on the go, right? And so at that time, you know, slowing down and saying, hey, taking this extra step and cleaning everywhere will prevent your skin from getting irritated and will help and putting that moisturizer on right when you get out of the bath.
You pat dry, you leave your skin a little bit moist and damp. So when you put the moisturizer on, it kind of seals in the moisture for them. But if you model that routine when you're assisting them, consistently, then hopefully they remember to automatically do that because they've been practicing all these years, you know?
CHELSEA:
Right. And of course, they're gonna miss. spots and they're going to do that. And you're going to do the best you can. but that's where that consistency comes in of showing them, you know, we're going to wipe everywhere. We're going to clean, we're going to put our moisturizer on. So then it becomes second nature to them and they're not having to think, Oh, I got to do this because they're thinking about the game that they need to go play.
DR ANA:
Right? Absolutely. that makes sense. I love that. okay. So I'm going to ask a question. We can totally mix it. But because I didn't ask, but I was just when you're talking about deodorant, I don't know if you get kids coming in even as young as seven. So I don't know if that's something I can ask.
Yeah, deodorant is something we talk about. so when it comes to getting body odor, that's usually going to be a period of time where they're going through some pubertal changes or hormonal changes. So typically we get body odor when the hormone changes are starting. And for girls, they go through puberty a little bit earlier than boys.
So some girls could get body odor as young as six or seven. One thing I've noticed in my practice and even just being around my own kids and their friends is that I've, you know, body odor is actually coming up. I feel like a little bit sooner. So I don't know if we're in the seven year range is that I don't know if you ever see that in your office, like where we're maybe recommending deodorant at this point in time.
Yeah, that's a great question. So I, We talk about deodorant all the time. And you're right when we talk about body odor, usually body odor is happening when the body is going through some changes. And it could be hormonal changes, pubertal changes. And we know that girls go through pubertal changes earlier than boys.
And sometimes we do see body odor as the first sign. Of that pubertal change that's going to come. Now that doesn't mean that they get their cycles right away or they go through the other changes, but body odor often is one of the first signs. And we'll see kids sometimes as young as six or seven present with it.
and in those situations. we can start off with things like antibacterial soaps or cleaning those areas where we have body odor. and if it's starting to impact them more socially with friends, with family, then, you know, we talk about deodorant options with them as well. And usually I recommend sensitive products as well because we don't know necessarily how the adult products are going to react.
But it's also okay for parents to do more frequent cleanses when they start to get body odor to use the antibacterial soap to eliminate the bacteria on the skin that causes the body odor to be more significant. And then some kids sweat more than others. So then taking precautions when they are sweating to have wipes or things, ways to clean.
so there's lots of ways to do it. I love it. Thank you so much. is there anything that I know? And I love that your platform with PD pals is so great on just the things that might don't come up on routine checkups, or we don't have time because they're all so many minutes. But anything that we didn't really cover yet today or anything that you're hoping to spread the word about?
Yeah, I, I think some of the main points we already hit on is consistency is key. figuring out the things that are important to you and your family and then incorporating them consistently. Like we discussed, I think self care is really important and teaching your Children that earlier is not only helpful for their health, but it's also helpful for their mental health and you know, everything that comes along with it.
we've, you know, partnered with a lot of people in the past products we believe in. You know, we love the Aveeno products. There's information on our Platforms about some of those products, about the products that we love, through our, platform. We always sharing. you know, we're on, we have a website at the PD pals.
Okay. We have a podcast that we did where we talk about everything from skincare to, you know, illnesses to the newborn phase, to the child, you know, behavior, phase. so that's a resource for parents. we also have, we're on TikTok social media, as you know, you mentioned that. and so you can find us in all those platforms and we're usually interacting and answering questions because a lot of these things come up.
but I do always tell people that. You know, you're going to get lots of recommendations and, and it's good to take all those recommendations, but when it comes to medical advice, you definitely want to talk to your doctor that knows your child and knows the specifics of your child. And, you know, I can tell you, I love these products and they work great and, you know, they're safe to use, but if your child has a specific skin condition or something like that, it is important to get that treated and looked at.
So those would be my biggest pearls, but. I can think of. Thank you so much, Dr. Yes, and we'll make sure to list all of your where they everyone can find you in the show notes and your website and the podcast and all of your social media platforms. So thank you so much again. And we appreciate your knowledge and just your willingness to provide this knowledge to parents outside.
Thank you so much for having me.