Grandma was right, we’re too clean!

Are we too clean?

There have been many studies  published the past couple of  years showing that kids  exposed to cats, dogs, and  other animals during  infancy develop fewer  allergies as children and adults.  Other studies found farm kids  less likely to have asthma  than city kids.

A recent group of scientists set  out to prove that automatic dish  washers were healthier than  hand washing and drying dishes. Alas, the study showed the opposite. Kids who lived in homes with dishwashers had a higher rate of asthma, eczema, and other allergies than their peers who struggled washing dishes by hand.

So, what’s going on? My grandma said “You have to eat a bushel of dirt before you die, so don’t worry about it,” referring to eating a piece of food that that fallen on the floor or ground. Could she have been right?

Ask any one over the age of 60 who had a vegetable garden if they ever pulled a carrot out of the fresh earth, wiped it on their pants, and ate it – dirt and all. As a kid we all did that. I can still feel the flavor bursting from the crisp vegetable into my mouth. I don’t remember ever seeing a kid in our farm community with asthma. I never saw a case until I was in college and met a wheezer from St. Paul. Now asthma is one of the biggest health problems pediatricians see.

We sterilize everything that goes into a baby’s mouth except mother’s breast and we find that breast fed babies have fewer allergies than bottle fed babies. And (this turns my stomach) babies, whose parents “clean” their pacifiers by licking or sucking them, also are at a lower risk of allergic disease.

It turns out Grandma was right.  Babies and toddlers need germs, dirt, and dust to boost their immune system. Some studies are now feeding babies a mixture of bacteria called “pro-biotics”to help them develop better immunity.

Big lesson here is don’t be so clean! Let your kids play in the dirt, eat their meals without scrubbing up like a heart surgeon, don’t fuss at them to wash their hands every time they touch a dog or cat; in other words, let them be kids!

P.S. Don’t let your kids read this or ask them to hand wash the dishes or they will hate me forever! Just enjoy them! And let them be themselves.