This Viral ‘Bread Trick’ Shows Kids Why They Need To Wash Their Hands

The slices of bread change over time proving the importance of hand-washing

Flu season is fast approaching, which means it’s almost time to dust off our usual parental lectures about the importance of hand-washing. That means it’s also time for our kids to blatantly ignore our cleanliness pleas because they don’t understand or care about germs, plus, kids are gross AF.

Enter an experiment that will teach people of all ages that they need to wash their damn hands.

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Courtney Lee Simpson posted a photo of three slices of bread on Facebook to make a point about why hand-washing matters. It quickly went viral because it’s simple — and brilliant.

She explains that all you need are three slices of bread — and a whole lot of germs.

“You let all the kids see you put a piece of bread in a baggy with a glove on hence ‘controlled’ then you wash your hands and put a piece of bread in a baggy for ‘clean.’ Last but definitely not least you pass a piece of bread around and let every kid in class touch it then you put it in a baggy and label it dirty.”

The results speak for themselves. “Watch how the bread changes over time due to germs. It is so cool and a great way to teach the importance of hand washing,” she writes.

Anyone else reaching for the antibacterial soap after looking at that dirty slice? Ick.

And as she noted in the post, it’s also a great way to teach young kids about why they need to wash their hands. Spend five minutes in any elementary school classroom and witness all the mouth, nose, eye, and (shudder) butt touching that goes on. Kids are gross, which they can’t help. But they can learn to wash their hands after every bathroom trip, before they eat, and pretty much any time the urge strikes.

Washing your hands is one of the most important ways of reducing the risk of transmitting disease, and it’s also the easiest. Trying to prove to kids why hand-washing matters can be tough, because they can’t see germs and us begging them to scrub up just fades into the white noise of adults telling kids to do a million different things every day.

That’s why this experiment is such a fantastic idea. It gives kids a visual to help them understand why washing their hands makes a huge difference in trying to stay healthy — during flu season, and always.