In a recent article posted on msnbc.com, “In praise of germs: Why common bugs are necessary for kids”, a team of researchers found that being exposed to some germs is good for building children’s immune system. They showed that young mice introduced to germs were able to keep their immune system active, to better help fend off bacterial and other infections later in life.
The article points out that parents are being told to keep everything, including their children, spotlessly clean, but that may not have to be the case. Some exposure to dirt and germs could be good for us.
Cleanliness has been a shifting priority for parents, and over time, we seemed to be more and more germ phobic. Companies have overwhelmed us through television commercials, advertisements and other marketing means to sell us the millions of cleaning products -- from solutions to soap to hand gels – promising to kill 99.9% of the bacteria. Hence, we buy into the idea that any bacteria or germ is bad for us; so we work harder to keep our children and home as clean as possible.
With studies like this, maybe we’ll spend less time cleaning the house and more time allowing our children to interact with nature, mainly dirt, a bit more. This may also be a good opportunity for us to get kids to be more active and play outside more often, instead of sitting in front of a television or computer screen.
