American Families Shelter Too Much

It seems like parents spend forever bathing their kids, dragging them out of the mud, and scooping sand out of their mouths at the playground. The mother of a family that I babysit is so paranoid about her kids getting sick from being dirty that she won't let her kids play in their own backyard without taking a bath immediately after. This made somewhat sense to me because I had always heard that infants are most susceptible to disease because their immune systems were so weak, so they should be kept clean and out of the dirt and mud.

I was surprised when I read a recently published article in Science Daily that infants that are exposed to many kinds of household bacteria, pollen, and pet dander are actually less likely to develop asthma and allergies. According to a study "infants who grew up in homes with mouse and cat dander and cockroach droppings in the first year of life had lower rates of wheezing at age 3". Now, all these "cockroach droppings" and "dander" in our homes sounds absolutely repulsive, but they actually improve the average infant's health in ways that you would not expect.

As it turns out, only 8 percent of children that suffer from athsma and allergies were exposed to allergens and bacteria in their childhood homes. This means that children that were exposed to what we think of as things that make kids sick are actually MUCH less likely to develop sicknesses.
I find this extremely interesting because it just shows how much parents shelter their kids in America. Earlier this year, we listened to a podcast about how parents these days are much too protective of their children and don't let them take physical risks. We can see that there is an actual health benefit of letting your kids fool around in the mud.