All kids love to get dirty, I’ve never met an infant that doesn’t mind romping around with the dog or eating food off of the floor. But most parents prefer their children to live in a sanitized environment, don’t they? Affluent babies live in such sanitized environments, and trends show increased incidences of asthma and allergies with these children. Now this article is saying that there might be other health risks involved in living in a completely clean environment.
In other words, it is beneficial for kids to get a little dirty from time to time. I’ve read plenty of studies that argue that allergies can come from or be more common in kids raised without animals or in an all-too-clean environment. If you think about it, it all makes complete ense – if a one’s body isn’t exposed to something with infancy, it can mean that at a later time whatever allergen introduced to the person will likely cause an overdramatic response to the foreign substance, i.e. inflammation. We weren’t born to be in these clean, undirty environments. We evolved from cave-people, didn’t we?
(Personally, I have to refute the hygene hypothesis, however. I grew up getting dirty often, always with dogs around, spending time around horses, rolling in the grass, etc. I’m the only one of my sisters to have seasonal pollen allergies, and a pretty intense allergy to hay, and asthma to boot. So very not fair!)
What this article is looking at though is how negative the inflammation can be…i.e. causing heart problems perhaps. According to the study, living in highly santized environments from infancy can cause chronic inflammation later in life, which can lead to more severe health problems.
“According to the “hygiene hypothesis”, our immune system evolved to handle a germ-laden world. If we don’t encounter many pathogens during infancy, it doesn’t learn to keep itself in check, and turns on inflammation – normally a response to infection – in inappropriate situations. This reaction, the hypothesis goes, is responsible for the recent increase in asthma and allergies, both associated with inflammation. Recently, it has emerged that chronic inflammation may also increase the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart diseases.”
Of course, it’s a trade-off. Eating food off the floor risks any other kind of germ-related illness or infection. Researchers say that some day they hope there will be a way to safely expose infants to germs and healthily exercise their immune response systems, but for now there really isn’t. According to them, though, it might actually be better to just let your 2-year-old eat the food he dropped on the floor, and risk infection.
I agree…we’re so obsessed with being neat and clean with children that we are actually doing them a disservice. It sounds like, in the long run, it would be really good if parents allowed their babies to get a little messy and do something unclean once in a while. In other words, I might be okay with it if my child wants to eat a cookie that he’s dropped on the floor from time to time 
We had a big discussion about this in micro and one of the things Dr. Easterwood mentioend was that over sanitizing leads to a “bored” immune system. It has nothing to attack. I agree with this-you don’t build an immune library and things that shouldn’t cause such a big deal end up becoming huge because your system is hypersensitive. People are so worried about the “big bugs” that they’re not getting their kids exposed to the normal ones that help fight off the simple things in life.
P.S. Sorry to hear about your allergies. Life just sometimes works that way, but at least it was a normal response for your body:-)
By: nicolehoekstra on December 13, 2009
at 7:13 pm
I’m sorry to hear about your asthma and allergies. I have the same problem and it doesn’t make it any better than allergies can trigger asthma problems.
However, I am glad that you did a blog on this. I feel as if people are too intense about making sure they are completely free of germs that they overlook that that might be a bad thing. Both of my parents are nurses. So, when I was young they used to let me play in the dirt, but they knew where to draw the line. In actuality, dealing with germs when you are young might help you have a better immune system as an adult. Thanks to my childhood exposure to germs, I have a strong immune system now.
By: evinigo on December 13, 2009
at 11:31 pm
I agree with what the article is saying. I was actually just talking to someone about this, how children these days are being raised in an “anti-germ” environment. I’ve seen mothers make their children use anti-bacterial gel after eating, playing outside, or even playing with their toys inside. Really now? Sometimes we need to be introduced to germs becaues it’s what helps build our immune system. So when I babysit kids, I make sure they role around as much as they want in the dirt!
By: meganknapp on December 14, 2009
at 4:37 am