(no subject)

[eeyore_grrl]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/03/133371076/how-keeping-little-girls-squeaky-clean-could-make-them-sick?sc=fb&cc=fp

we said long ago that we would let our kids eat dirt...

Comments

[circumspectly.livejournal.com]

When I was just a li'l punkin', I kept getting these weird rashes (pre-toddler)...my Mama took me to the doctor, who told her that she was keeping me "too clean". She took his advice, the rashes disappeared. She kept taking his advice, and it's a good thing, cuz I turned out to be a butt-kickin' little tomboy, and she'd have had a helluva time keepin' me clean! I've always been pretty healthy, and I thank Dr. Dougherty for his sage advice!

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

I am very surprised when parents at our preschool send their girls to school in nice dresses/shoes and ask them to not get dirty. We specifically ask families to send their kids to school in clothes that can get dirty. S. goes to school in clothes he can easily play in and that can get dirty/stained. That's the *point*.

Also, I figure my kids have spent enough time in the dirt and grass at Ardenwood Farm to inoculate them from all sorts of things. I do, however, require them to wash their hands after they have touched the hoofstock and/or chickens. We can take a pass on e coli and salmonella.

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I just read something about new evidence strongly linking particular illnesses in the first six months of life and schizophrenia and other mental illnesses much later. Don't have details on me, unfortunately, but you could probably turn up articles on it pretty easily. Still, it does seem that barring major brain-chemistry-changing illnesses, the evidence points to the benefits of some grime! ;~)

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

However, I was a total tomboy (and encouraged by my parents), and I still have shitty, shitty allergies today. But there was a big uptick in pollution in the Salt Lake Valley around the time I started getting allergies in my late teens. And there are always exceptions -- it seems that we all have a way-too-strong tendency to take averages to be prescriptions or explanations for individuals, which is just so broken.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

THe girl in the picture may be a bit excessive... But we way over clean now. The antibacterial gel is EVERYWHERE and it's ridiculous! And as a new mom I saw/see everyone with it. I believe in washing...

[urox.livejournal.com]

This actually makes me think of another hypothesis. You know the current hype about all sorts of bad chemicals in the shampoos, soaps, etc, that we use?

Since girls are required to be cleaner, maybe it's the higher exposure to the bad chemicals that triggers auto-immune things.