Comments on: OM NOM NOM MOAR BUGS

By: Alecto

Alecto — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:25:16 +0000

This is a firm belief of my mother’s.
Probably also from convenience, since I grew up in the French countryside alongside a younger brother, two to four horses depending on the year, two to three dogs and a couple of cats. My parents both work, my grandmother kept an eye on us but she wasn’t an outdoor person – she lived in her own flat in our house – so we ran around outside a fair bit.
No allergies. I have a bunch of stress-related issues, but that’s it really.

By: Ms. M

Ms. M — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 19:44:51 +0000

I grew up on a farm, the youngest of 5 kids. I’ve been exposed to probably just about everything! We had herds of barn cats, cows, a pond, rusty metal, old stuff in the attic of the sheds and barn, hay, straw, everything you can imagine got grubbed around in.

Still, two of my sibs have horrid allergies to pollen, grass, mold, etc. I’ve got a shitty autoimmune disease (developed as a kid) but no allergies.

By: viajera

viajera — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:46:54 +0000

I absolutely think this is true. I’ve spent a lot of time in Central America, and moreover spent a fair amount of time around children there. But allergies are virtually non-existent there – and, to a one, the few children with allergies I met came from rich, urban families who lived more North American-style lives (read: indoors and germ-obsessed). Wherever I went, I’d see babies crawling around on dirty house and even market floors, and children playing in the street or the woods. Yet they were healthy!

Furthermore, most North Americans tend to have intestinal problems when they first visit Central America, no matter how careful they are in what the eat and drink – but I rarely did, even though I’d eat street food and drink tap water. While I was down there with a field course one year, every other person on the course had violent intestinal problems at one site, except for me. Which I attribute to the fact that, when I was growing up, we spent part of each summer at a rural cabin where we’d drink water from an open spring, which almost certainly exposed us to all sorts of “bugs” that we developed resistance to.

By: rodriguez

rodriguez — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:24:54 +0000

Did any of you see the movie Babies? This discussion relates to one of the points made (every so gently, it sorta went by the wayside). There were babies, really little babies, playing happily in the mud all day, and another whose parents spent all day cleaning surfaces with antiseptic wipes and all that. Guess where?

By: Mackey

Mackey — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:47:31 +0000

Oh Dorky – as kids, we were always outside.. playing in teh muds, eating fruit and veg freshly picked from the garden without washing the skin, not washing our hands before eating the unwashed fruit and veg from the garden.

But one of the more funniest moments about bugs and mud was my youngest brother when he started to get mobile (around 6-8 months). A couple of us found him sitting in the mud with half a bug hanging out of his mouth.
We laughed, giggled and squealed. Mum came to see what the noise was about, and then told us that we’d all done that at least once. We were a bit shocked! She didn’t seem to concerned about the bug though.

By: TMae

TMae — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:46:30 +0000

Hy husband is a complete germaphobe and we’re currently in the midst of a struggle over all things anti-bacterial. He LOVES the little wipes, the squirty soap for the bathroom, the little bottles he has stashed in the cars…

I, on the other hand, hate triclosan and stand firmly with Becky Sharper and mischiefmanager – try to keep kids away from the MOST TOXIC stuff, and the rest? Eh…they’ll be fine.

By: Mere

Mere — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:18:21 +0000

I’ve seen variations on this idea for a while. I’m curious though – it seems like other populations in the US would have more marked differences than male versus female. Country kids (or even suburbia kids) of certain groups tend to play outside a lot, even if boys are encouraged to more than girls, and are probably exposed to more and different sorts of bacteria than say, upper class city children.

I wish this hypothesis was 100% correct. I practically lived in mud as a child – my parents literally let me have a mud pit for fun – and still ended up with the diabeetus.

The theory that seems the most likely to me re: higher rate of autoimmune disorders in women is the idea that our double X chromosomes are actually confusing to our immune systems.

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:48:11 +0000

I’m with Becky. Keeping our kids in a sanitary bubble is counterproductive and a waste of time. Our kids were never hugely messy, but mud and dirt are part of growing up-or should be.

By: Es

Es — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:54:04 +0000

I was a horsey child (and am a horsey adult) so was never terribly clean! It never occurred to me to wash the horse-grime off my hands before eating my packed lunch, or that sharing an apple with the pony in alternate bites might be a bad thing. Still doesn’t now! The equestrian world is overwhelmingly female, so there are still plenty of little girls getting muddy and grimy and not caring.

By: Tall-in-Heels

Tall-in-Heels — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:40:53 +0000

My most famous childhood picture shows me in a very girly pink jacket covered from head-to-toe in dirt. I’ve never quite understood the urge to create an antiseptic environment for children. I’ve read other studies (not focused on gender) that suggest that exposure to some of the nasty stuff we’re now taught to obsessively sanitize is important for a child’s immune system to develop normally. One doctor quoted in one of the studies even said that the best thing you can do for your baby’s immune system is to have a dog or a cat in the house.