My husband’s mother is a germ-o-phobe. She always has been. When her two boys were little, she would not allow them to touch the floor (she always put a clean sheet down on the floor for them to play on), and they were not allowed to play outside barefoot. She boiled everything, scoured everything and essentially eradicated every bit of dirt possible, and both my husband and his brother were some of the sickest kids I’ve ever heard of. They had allergies, repeated ear infections, asthma, etc. She thought she was doing the right thing. Back in the day that’s what everyone believed, though I expect not many went to quite the extent she did.
The New York Times recently published an article called Babies Know: A Little Dirt is Good for You that is almost a little disturbing as it talks about the kinds of things we ingest all the time, but it sure is helpful if you’re the type to worry about germs and dirt. Turns out, they’re helpful!
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April 17th, 2009 at 3:44 am
[...] Right after I took this picture, I turned my back and he chose that moment to pull up on a planter and take a nice big bite of dirt. [...]