Germs for Kids – They Are Not Scary!
A microbiologist named Marie-Claire Arrieta wrote a book called Let Them Eat Dirt. Parents should find it interesting. It debunks the myth that germs for kids are bad.
An alarming number of children suffers from chronic disease. A major factor that may be contributing to it is our fear of dirt.
In America, we use anti-bacterial hand soap and hand sanitizers regularly. While remaining clean is important, taking it too far may prevent us from being as healthy as we’d like.
The book goes into the “hygiene hypothesis” which states that lack of exposure to infectious agents in early childhood (or germs for kids) increases the chance that child will have allergic diseases later on. It happens because the child’s developing immune system does not get the chance to fight off these daily germs, and so their immune system does not learn. This suppresses its natural function.
Evidence shows that children who grow up on farms have a much smaller chance of developing asthma. Scientists have shown that living in a less clean environment is actually better. The same is true of owning pets. If you have them, let your child play with them (be mindful of safety, of course).
The answer, if you don’t live on a farm, is to allow your child to get dirty. Don’t sanitize everything your baby touches (and puts in their mouth). Let the germs for kids strengthen their immune systems.
If you’d like to read the article I used for this post, click here.
To order the book, you can go to Amazon.com.
Be grateful, have fun, love lots!
Dr. Andrea
If you would like to read more about how chiropractic helps kids with things like bedwetting, click here.