Teens and Germs

After all the years that we tried to convince parents and convince kids that sharing is good, from a germ point of view sharing is the way germs are passed on from one child to another.

Personal items: hair brushes, hats, cosmetics…shared between girls can transmit infectious diseases…

And today it seems like there are more ways than ever for teens to 'transmit'…

Anything that you touch or that you cough on is a potential source for spreading bacteria or viruses.

And the 411 on how concerned parents should be about this new wave of germ havens?

You have to pick your battles, and I think kids sharing cell phones and kids sharing laptops and kids sharing ipods, it's just going to go on…

Let your teens know to avoid sharing when they have a condition that might be contagious—perhaps you can tell them in a text message. Bacteria, for example, may be transferred when ear buds are shared. … Children old enough to have personal electronic items, like cell phones, should also know how to properly clean them on a regular basis.

Well probably the cheapest and easiest way is just taking something like rubbing alcohol, isopropyl alcohol and taking a clean cloth and just slightly dampening it, you don't want to soak it because you don't want the liquid to get into the electronics…and simply by wiping down your electronic device all the way around and that should do it.

Make sure electronic items are turned completely off before cleaning. Keyboards may require a little more effort…Compressed air works fine against dust, but…

…It's not going to help in your warfare against the germs as much…

Wiping down the key panel with a cloth dampened slightly with alcohol or a wipe especially designed for laptops should get rid of most of the germs… Ear buds can also be wiped off with a clean cloth and rubbing alcohol…and should be on a regular basis—particularly if they are shared… And sorry if we're beginning to sound like an MP3 player stuck in an endless loop… but frequent hand washing is still the best defense against contracting illness, since germs tend to go from surfaces to hands, to faces, where they can enter the body through the nose, mouth, eyes or ears…

The most important of all the hand-washing moments, and the one that we'll seem the most paranoid, but is the most effective, is after playing with or having contact, handshaking for example, with another sick person.

And don't forget to C-Y-M…that's 'cover your mouth'…preferably with a tissue or your sleeve…when you cough or sneeze. For WebMD, I'm Damon Meharg.