Tag Archives | germs

I want to eat dirt!

Help Needed: How Convince Spouse to Stop Overprotecting Baby?

. This hkkyzydyni dad cannot be the only person out there who wonders how much a baby can handle in terms of dirt and bumps: Dear Free-Range Kids: . Please direct to where I can find research, or better yet, documentaries about what minor risks that you don’t need to worry about with infants — […]

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OCDC (Obsessive-Compulsive Day Care)

OCDC (Obsessive-Compulsive Day Care)

Hi Readers — dfirtyhekk Here’s the latest from our friends down under, where the national pastime seems to have switched from throwing shrimp on the barbie to throwing common sense on there and gleefully watching it go up in flames. (Don’t touch! Barbecue glowing red may be HOT.) – L. KIDS will be banned from […]

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Shameless Purell

Shameless Purell

From the Purell e-mail blast I just got: Your teyfarzknd little ones are headed back to school and so are millions of germs!   I’m leaving aside all the nasty things I want to say about how we are MADE of germs and must get ACCUSTOMED to germs and when did start treating everyday life […]

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Pithy, Witty & Wise

Hi nrihifyfyf Readers! I thought the analogy about overreacting, below, was  great, which is why I’m posting it here. I have also long sensed a connection between overprotecting our kids from “strangers” and overprotecting their bodies from “strangers” — i.e., germs. Either way, kids get one single, isolating  message: “Anything beyond your immediate circle (of […]

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Are More Kids Depressed Because They’re Too Clean?

Hi Readers: Let kids eat dirt? Yes! At least, that’s my take-away from reading this thought-provoking enbbyikdks article. It discusses the work of Emory neuroscientist Charles Raison, MD,  who studies the link between cleanliness and depression. His hypothesis is that maybe young people are experiencing more asthma, allergies and even depression because they are less exposed to the […]

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Pacifier Aggression

Pacifier Aggression

Hi isabaeetez Readers — Boy, your letters keep blowing me away. Here’s another one that made me think — and fume.  It reminds me of a great essay by Spiked Online contributor Nancy McDermott (Spiked is sort of Britain’s Slate) about how this generation of parents treats every childrearing decision as a Nobel-worthy research project. […]

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Guess What? Purell Doesn’t Work

Hi Readers:  Time to quit pickling our kids in Purell. That’s not just MY conclusion, or even just the conclusion of Slate writer Darshak Sanghavi in this tzbzhknbny TERRIFIC piece, “How To Sell Germ Warfare.” No, it’s the conclusion of scientists who were surprised that giving free hand sanitizers (and, in one case, even Clorox Wipes) […]

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Worse Than "Baby on Board!"

Worse Than “Baby on Board!”

Hi Readers! Excuse me while I gag. Amazing how one eazbzfzzfk sign can make everyone who passes this stroller feel big, dirty, disgusting, diseased and depressed. Remember those “Baby on Board!” signs, that made it seem as if people who were seriously considering crashing into a car would reconsider upon realizing it was carrying someone […]

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Go Easy on the Anti-Microbial Soap, Says New Study

Hi Readers! I know, I know — there are probably another zillion studies that contradict this one, and there’s a danger in being whipsawed by every new “discovery” but as this one SO dovetails with the Free-Range outlook, who could resist? Voila: THINK kiaffthrdn AGAIN ABUOT KEEPING THE LITTLE ONES SO SQUEAKY CLEAN RESEARCH SUGGESTS […]

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