Cleanliness–regular habits of bathing, washing hair, washing hands, using a latrine, brushing teeth, etc. These lead to greater bodily comfort and better health. Children should be taught to wash their hands from an early age before food and after toileting.
Bad or Unnecessary Habits
Drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes are both habits which should be discouraged. Alcohol can easily become a problem and so to avoid alcoholism it is best not to start drinking or to limit it to ritual or ceremonial occasions. Even social drinking can lead to increased dependence on alcohol, and ultimately to all the problems that drunkenness creates in the family or at work.
Smoking can cause lung cancer and bronchitis, and is also associated with increased heart disease and delayed healing of peptic ulcers. It should not be started by young people, and those already smoking should be persuaded to give it up if possible. Training Children About Health Habits Formation
Personal health Habits and the Community
If everyone in the community used a latrine and washed their hands after using it, then there would be almost no spread of many diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, hookworm, cholera, or bilharzia. Only countries where people smoke a lot have a high rate of cancer of the lung. In many developing countries cigarette factories are being built and the people are now learning a habit that can kill them after many years. Training Children About Health Habits Formation
If people could also develop the habit of talking to their children regularly to clinics for examination and immunization, of attending clinics when pregnant, and of seeking help early in the course of an illness, this, too, would lead to a healthier community.
Exercise
It is good to become accustomed to taking daily exercise. In developing countries people have to work hard and walk long distances, and this probably accounts for the absense of coronary heart disease and obesity so commonly found in developed countries. The educated, wealthy person in a developing country, however, is also often too busy for regular exercise unless he has formed a habit of enjoying some sport or recreation.
