interesting study here. Times have changed.

go jump in puddles and throw some mud around, they have baths or showers for a reason

The full sanitisation thing is a recent phenomena [last 20 years] before that it was unheard of and kids used to play outside and get dirty. Haven’t you heard of the 3 minute drop? If something was on the floor for longer than that it had to be thrown in the bin. Of course no dogs were kept inside the house back then either – they were kept in kennels outside.

Interesting that the ‘dirtier’ kids had lower rather of asthma, allergies and eczema. Those are all conditions I thought you were born with!

It’s been know that kids who live on a farm are far healthier than the city kids, because they get up close to animals, dirt etc.

Kids do need to get outside and have a bit of harmless fun in the sand or dirt.

Well we’ve known this for ages! I’ve never been scared of dirt.

Totally agree with this! My son loves nothing more than playing in the mud and dirt and is rarely sick

Definitely agree with this. Of course within reason.

The comment about the dummy is interesting. I knew people who stuck the dummy in their mouth before giving it to the kids years ago, but when i had my kids (3 years ago) i was told definitely not to do that, and that it should be washed before giving to the kids. My youngest still has a dummy so I’ll now lick it myself! Perhaps its still best to wash if dealing with a newborn though???

My youngest 2 (5 and 9yrs old) certainly know how to get dirty ! My youngest eats even sand and last year she found bat poo in the garden, stuck part of it in her undies and ate the rest. Then when she had her fingers in her ears it caused a huge infection (goes well when you have grommets).

A commonsense approach to this is of course a given.

I can see how its a. Great thing

This brings back memories. I know 2 sisters who have 2 kids each. 3 of them have dark hair, one of them fair (the youngest is a boy). The girls decided it wasn’t right that he had fair hair and they had dark so they made really thick mud and put it all through his hair. The top of it had dried when the Mums went outside to see what the were doing.

I can go with this – within reason, of course!

They are building a higher immunity to dirt and germs.

My kids were constantly outside playing in the dirt with the animals. I loved and they loved it. I didn’t like the clean up, but it was ok if they had fun getting dirty

I remember years ago reading an article where they said we should all have a cow in the living room. 🙂 Killing all germs is indeed not good for our immune system. And there definitely are too many antibacterial products on the market we don’t need.

As a child I used to get out in the mud puddles and of course get covered in dirt. Had heaps of fun and never ended up sick because of it. The same with dogs licking my face, although mum kept saying, don’t let the dog lick your face. My kids all used to play in the mud, go for bush walks where there were creeks that they’d look for tadpoles and frogs. None of them ever got sick from it. These days I’m hesitant about dogs licking my face. Also We were dairy farmers for quite some time and one particular cow turned more into a pet and it used to lick me on the face. LOL.

Oh yes!! I am defiant not a germ freak. My kids get as gruby as they want and I don’t even wash their hands when we come home from being around other kids? I don’t think it is worth the stress. Kids are hard enough as it is! Lol