This makes me feel better about not having the cleanest house:
From www.bloggingbaby.com “An article on CNN.com reports that germs that many parents disinfect might help build children’s immunity and fight allergies and asthma later. Some experts are beginning to believe that too much cleanliness might be a contributing factor to the increase of allergies in the past 15 years and studies of of babies in households with pets or in day care have found that they have fewer allergies later.
Some parents like Michelle and Mark Sukenik let their 14 month-old daughter Madison crawl around the house, restaurants, doctor’s office and even eat food right off the floor. Madison didn’t get her first cold until she was 13 months old. Others like Kara Sherry wipe down the edges of shopping carts with antibacterial wipes and sanitize toothbrushes. Her kids are rarely sick.
I used to be a clean freak too when Sean and Will were little babies and they were sick all the time. But now that I don’t vacuum clean the house every day or iron my children’s clothes to kill germs and just stick to a consistent hand-washing routine, I notice that the boys are a lot less sick. Still, I could never let them eat something that had fallen on the floor.”Â
And I have no problem with food on floor, playing in the mud, crawling on the floor, etc. Of course, I keep thinking “They’re boys, they’re supposed to be dirty!” And as far as the author said, vacuuming EVERY DAY?!? Wow.