Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You

[HuckleB]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?em

"Ask mothers why babies are constantly picking things up from the floor or ground and putting them in their mouths, and chances are they’ll say that it’s instinctive — that that’s how babies explore the world. But why the mouth, when sight, hearing, touch and even scent are far better at identifying things?

When my young sons were exploring the streets of Brooklyn, I couldn’t help but wonder how good crushed rock or dried dog droppings could taste when delicious mashed potatoes were routinely rejected.

Since all instinctive behaviors have an evolutionary advantage or they would not have been retained for millions of years, chances are that this one too has helped us survive as a species. And, indeed, accumulating evidence strongly suggests that eating dirt is good for you.

In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.

..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?em


Thank goodness for dirt!

[aquart]

1. A baby once picked a fallen lolly off the floor and put it back in her mouth.

I cried out, alerting her mother who looked as me with amused pity.

"Oh, dear. I don't know how to tell you. She's had worse things in her mouth."

[Kittycat]

2. I guess that's why my son prefers his raisins off of the floor, instead of a bowl.

Who knew. :shrug:

[kestrel91316]

3. Bacteria and worms are our friends. Who knew?

[AnOhioan]

4. I love these lines from the article....

"Children raised in an ultraclean environment,” he added, “are not being exposed to organisms that help them develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits."

"Dr. Ruebush deplores the current fetish for the hundreds of antibacterial products that convey a false sense of security and may actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria. Plain soap and water are all that are needed to become clean, she noted."

Everytime I see an ad for products that tout their ability to 'sanitize' our homes and ourselves I just shake my head. Too much of that crap being peddled nowadays.

[silverojo]

5. I guess that's why babies will instinctively drink chemical cleaners, too

Just nature's way of keeping their systems clean!

My God, who comes up with these asinine theories, and why to moronic editors keep publishing them?

[HuckleB]

6. Are you going to offer up a research based rebuttal?

That would be appropriate considering your claim.

[HuckleB]

7. Also, because some babies have drunk from the bottles of chemical cleaners...

does not mean that most or all babies, do so. You are making an assertion without basis.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. I think they mean that babies don't know best what to put in their mouths.

They can get sick or even die from poisoning.

I think it's a lousy theory myself. I grew up in a dirty house, with dog hair, cat hair, rat hair, dust, mold, no central air. Lots of heat and humidity, unbearable in the summer. Plenty of mold, dirt, dust blowing through. The clothes were clean, the sheets and towels were clean, and the people were clean, but there were still a helluva lot of germs around. I spent all my time with a runny nose. The other kids in school yelled at me for blowing my nose all the time so I could breathe.

According to this theory I should have an amazingly strong immune system.

I don't. I have an autoimmune disease that hit me when I was eleven. Twenty years ago, I was sick with bacterial pneumonia caused by non-pathogenic bacteria, for about five years, on and off. My doctor had to wash my lungs out four times in five years. I would have died had I not had that done.


I had a very suppressed immune system. The people working in the hospital couldn't figure out why I was so sick. Every time they cultured the bugs, they said "Normal Flora" or "non-pathogenic bacteria". They asked me, "Do you smoke?" and I said, "No, I'm not that stupid."

I still have exercise induced asthma, allergic asthma, and plenty of allergies.

:shrug: :wtf:

[HuckleB]

14. You are not responding to the actual "theory."

You are responding in a very black and white manner, without looking at what the researcher actually states. Further, you are a single individual. You cannot generalize from one person.

[HamdenRice]

9. Get a dog or cat.They'll get your house dirty & germy real fast & improve baby's immune system

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2002/E/20023523.html

August 2002

From Medical College of Georgia
Children with dogs, cats have reduced risk of allergies

Children who grow up with dogs and cats in the home have a significantly reduced risk of developing common allergies- some by 50 percent or more - a surprising finding resulting from a study following hundreds of children from birth to nearly age 7.

"We simply started looking at our data to see if exposure to dogs and cats really increases the risk and the data didn't look the way it was supposed to; as a matter of fact, it was very strongly the opposite of what we expected to find," said Dr. Dennis R. Ownby, chief of the Medical College of Georgia Section of Allergy and Immunology and lead investigator on the study published in the Aug. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Allergists have been trained for generations that dogs and cats in the house were bad because they increased the risk of you becoming allergic to them; we know that before you become allergic to something, you have to be repeatedly exposed to it."

But when doctors followed a group of 474 healthy babies in the Detroit area from birth to about age 7, comparing the 184 exposed during infancy to two or more dogs or cats to the 220 who were not exposed to these animals, they found that the children exposed to two or more indoor pets were half as likely to develop common allergies.

...

The researchers think that exposure to dogs and cats leads to lower risks of allergies because children living with these animals are probably exposed to higher levels of endotoxins, the breakdown products of Gram-negative bacteria commonly found in the mouth of a cat or dog. "Exposure to endotoxins is thought to force the body's immune system to develop a different pattern of response that makes you less likely to become allergic," he said.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. Not true in my experience.

Read my post above.

Grew up with a sister who loved animals. We had the following, at various times: Ducks in the backyard, 25 white rats, box turtles, parakeets, cats, boa constrictors, and a large collie dog.

[Why Syzygy]

13. Did you grow up in the

Gulf? The skies over Beaumont are PINK at night. There may have been other factors involved. I'm not saying that your household home as you describe it was 'healthy'! Molds are very dangerous.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. Yes, I grew up near Houston.

Close to the Ship Channel, in fact. Mold, dust, pollution, tree roaches, rats in the attic, nasty chemicals, high humidity all the time, 12 month growing season -- a real fungal jungle.

I'm amazed I'm still alive, with my shitty immune system. :D

[Evoman]

10. I keep telling my girlfriend there is an evolutionary reason I pick my nose and eat it.

She just says I'm a pig.

This'll show her.

[AlphaCentauri]

11. That would explain why some people die from salmonella n/t

[HuckleB]

15. It would?