Dirt & Germs are bad and clean is good, correct? A major aisle in your local supermarket confirms that with its variety of disinfectants & cleaners. We are a society obsessed with cleanliness and so it may surprise you that evidence to the contrary has shown up recently.
Researchers are starting to find that certain germs may actually protect us from future illnesses. A study put together last fall extracted data that showed that kids who grew up in households with more sickness and/or exposure to animal feces, actually tended to have lower levels of illness later on.
In another study done on preschoolers recently, data identified that of the children that tested positive for Helicobacter pylori, bacteria that lives in most people?s stomach lining, most of the cases were less often found to have eczema in the long run.
Now with children, there is no way to predict what immunity might present itself in each case or what each child might be sensitive to, and who wants to take the risk? But, it is always nice to be well-informed and this just reaffirms the fact that sometimes letting your children enjoy the natural world may actually benefit them in the long run, rather than hurt them.
