Five Second Rule: Are You a Germaphobe?

Man, Grandma thinks I'm close to child-abusive for picking up crackers off the floor. Heck, the research shows that babies who eat dirt (like actual handfuls of soil) help teach their immune systems not to over-react to the environment, and thus end up with less asthma and allergies -- bring it on!

On the other hand, like Asha, I consider the threats from sick kids -- whether at daycare, the gym, or kid-oriented museums and destinations -- very real, and am much more careful to wipe my kid's hands before she eats and as we're leaving such places (and to try to keep her hands out of her nose and mouth while there). That seems just as reasonable to me as *not* worrying about the crackers. So yes, we have some hand wipes in our outing bag. (But, in response to some of the video, does Purell really claim to help with *viruses*?? I think soap is much better there.)

Also, I think everybody is paranoid in the first month or so, and rightfully so. We washed everything with scalding water, purell, and all the rest. But now she has an immune system, right? so let her encounter the environment!

Tue, 2010-02-02 07:58

Hrm. I think I'm half and half. I don't own hand sanitizer and I'm not freakish about keeping my house sterilized. But I do have my moments. I'm hard-core paranoid about raw meat. If I cook chicken, I was my hands under hot hot water everytime they even come NEAR the meat. Dishes too. If I hand-wash dishes, the water has to be HOT. My fiance practically spit cleans dishes when he washes them and it drives me insane!

Food dropped on the floor - it depends on where the floor is. I saw a woman who picked up a cookie after her daughter dropped in on the floor at an AIRPORT and gave it back to her. No. Um, no. Dude? It's the AIRPORT! The amount of dirt and grossness and traffic that that floor has seen, it cannot POSSIBLY be good for your child to eat that cookie. I think I'd rather give her a cookie that fell on actual dirt, like in a forest, than give her a cookie that fell on the airport floor.

Fri, 2010-01-29 07:19

I feel practical about my germ aversions... I think. We wash hands when we get home from an outing, before & after meals, after toilet use and any o ther sticky time. I bring antibacterial wipes with us when we're out. Use them regularly. I don't want my kids to rub their eyes or suck on their fingers after touching a particularly sticky something-or-other.

BUT CLEARLY, these practices aren't working...
This Winter, my kids (3yrs and 1 yr- my younger more so) have been attacked, quite literally, with colds, ear infections, and now coxsackie virus. We got our Swine flu vaccines, seasonal flu, too - so no fluey things. BUT, we're in the throws of coxsackie right now and I can I tell you how effing awful it's been? OMG. OMG. OMG. This is one of those viruses transferred by fecal matter. Where the hell did we get this???? And how?? I'm beside myself. So, I hear you, SilverXeno.

I'm just shell-shocked right now. Not so much so that we won't resume our playdates and outings once we're healthy again. I'm not the Mom who won't enjoy a social life and exploring the world because I don't want my kids to get sick.

BUT I tell you, it makes me DAMN CRAZY when I see a sick baby at a playdate, at the library, at the park. Why do people bring their sick kids out? It doesn't seem right. Every time I turn around, a little cutie is snotting/sneezing/coughing on one of my kids and I've HAD ENOUGH with parents spreading their kids' germs! I recently went on a rant about this: http://www.eileenjay.com/

It kinda makes me twitch to read about *wndl* handing her baby over after requesting no hand washing, but hey? She sounds like she's a rock star in the immunity world. Wish I could say the same... I covet her army!!

Tue, 2010-01-26 05:43

While I am skittish about leftovers that have been in the fridge for more than a few days, overall, no, not a germaphobe. I like Asha'a approach about just stepping up handwashing. I buy hand sanitizer and then end up never using it (although I am about to give birth to my first and there *will* be a bottle of it going in the diaper bag!) And in general I am ok with eating stuff that has fallen on the floor. I have read several articles recently that support backing off on antibacterials and antibiotics, the first saying that Norway has almost completely eradicated MRSA infections by drastically reducing their antibiotic usage, and several others that report that doctors are now *treating* people with athsma and Crohn's Disease by deliberately infecting them with hookworms (I think this is still mostly experimental but it seems to be working!) We need germs! But I am still scrupulous about washing my hands after handling raw meat and going to the bathrooms, because there are definitely some germs we *don't* need.

Sun, 2010-01-24 15:16

Oh look, somebody's mapped it all out for me!

http://flowingdata.com/2010/01/22/dropped-food-should-you-eat-it/

Sun, 2010-01-24 10:39

I am emphatically NOT a germaphobe. We do not own a bottle of Purell, and I do not buy antibacterial soap. We generally try to keep clean, but I am not going to let a cracker that fell on the floor go to waste. And in the garden we'll pull up a carrot, dust it off, and eat it. A little bit of dirt isn't going to hurt anyone, especially a healthy, active kid with a normal immune system.

Although, I am sort of terrified of raw meat. But food borne pathogens are different than dirt, in my mind, and much more dangerous.

Sat, 2010-01-23 21:19

I work in food service... Do I really need to say anything more?

So here's my real opinion.

Germs are OK. They serve a purpose. Being exposed to germs helps us build our defense system.

I have no problem handing my child something that fell on the floor or the ground (depending on who's floor it is). I have no problem picking an M&M off the ground, giving it a quick dust off and popping into my mouth. Mmmm chocolate. The binky that hit the floor either got dusted off or I popped it in my mouth before returning it to the munchkin. Mmmm baby slobber

The germs that really gross me out and make me run for the sanitizer are germs that I come in contact with at work. PEOPLE GERMS ARE GROSS. Dirty dishes, food that people have touched and breathed on at a buffet, the etiquette deficient guy that sneezes into his hand and then shakes your hand, napkins that someone has wiped their mouth on, trash cans, recirculated central air, someones half eaten roll that they set on the table instead of on their bread plate.... you get the idea.

Fri, 2010-01-22 11:20

I knew I'd reached a new level of acceptance when I walked through the kitchen, stepped on a pacifier, and bent down to brush MY FOOT off.

Fri, 2010-01-22 10:31

Eep! To start...I will say that my mom let me eat dirt as a kid...we ran barefoot, we had pets that only lived out of doors...and so our exposure to them was in a totally filthy environment. We lived on an acre...with dirt, grass, trees, plants...BUGS...ETC! My sister didn't have an antibiotic for the first time until she was sixteen years old! I was always prone to ear infections, so I was on them much earlier...but we rarely had the sniffles. In fact, so few times, I can recall EACH incident that one of us kids (there were 4 of us) were so sick that we needed a doctor's care.

NOW...fastfoward a few years. I absolutely let my kids eat dirt outside and play in the dirt at my mom's house (the same home I was raised in). At my own house? NO WAY! Cuz I was a renter...and I didn't really have any way to know what they had been doing to their dirt! I know it's a total contradiction...but I felt like my mom's house was "safe" dirt. I had built an immunity to things in the home & yard...and felt like my kids would be okay there. Now we've moved and it hasn't been warm enough to be outside, so we shall see. And ya know..my 6 year old has been sick once or twice, not including UTIs (which she seems to get from taking bubble baths).

My 2 year old has been sick a few times (and at 5 weeks a friend brought their 9 month old to my house SICK and infected my newborn!!)...but nothing serious. And really, she has only been around while my older child has been in school...so I wonder if the older kid is bringing it home and passing it out, ya know?

In my home...we have like a 2 minute rule. Pretzels have been on the floor since lunch? Ehh...they should be okay. I feel like we should be able to expose ourselves to the good and bad germs in our house as much as possible...b/c these are the germs we'll be able to fight off easily. Sort of like practice for the big, scary, strange stuff.

In public is a different story. I wipe the fast food table off with diaper wipes (twice at least) before we sit down. We wash our hands in the bathroom, then I have my antibacterial foam (Bath & Body works!) that goes on after the bathroom...b/c we touched the knobs and the handles, etc. I have toiletseat covers (they're in the kid's travel section at Target, and totally work for adult butts, too!) for public restrooms...I clean the shopping cart handle...When my youngest was little I had the floppy cover thing (not for my oldest who went from the carseat to sitting up in like a week, and never chewed on anything)...And I really am only so paranoid about being in public, b/c of Typhoid Mary Syndrome. I made that up, but it's the only way to describe what I have. ANYone could carry harmful things but not actually be sick from it, or ever have symptoms. I knew a boy in highschool who found out he was a TB carrier. He would NEVER get TB...but he could pass it out like birthday invitations if he were so inclined.

So...in public...I'm like a walking sterilization kit. At home...Even I have eaten the cookies off the floor. And I don't want to turn this into one of *those* conversations...but this is also the reason I vaccinated my kids! Even though I didn't want to...I felt like I have NO idea where anything else comes from and what it has been exposed to that could potentially give them a fatal disease. My own pediatrician told my mom (who was also wary of vaccines) that in today's society, we are very transient. No one lives & dies in a small town anymore. People from countries where polio still exists may come here and serve me food or check my groceries in the store. People who are living in total poverty are picking my fruit and then putting it on a truck and sending it to my grocery store, where it's unloaded by I don't know who! Then I take it home and it sits in my house until we eat it. Yeah, I clean it before we eat it...but how long have we been exposed to it before that? The original handlers would be immune b/c of their constant exposure...but I (or my kids) wouldn't be.

Fri, 2010-01-22 07:55