General Chat

Does anyone agree with me that children of today need to be allowed to play and get dirty? I suspect the e-coli outbreaks at farms which allow visits are as much caused by lack of immunity as any fault of the farm. Children have played with animals on farms and in zoos for as long as the human race has survived, and it is only now that we have problems. It is like the constant urging to use disinfectant on every kitchen surface. I think it is unnecessary. Soap and water are fine.

Jean,

I do agree with you. I have had conversations with friends and family today, saying exactly the same.

There is so much emphasis on sanitizing everything, people, surfaces, toilets etc. I don't think the young ones have any chance of building up a resistance to the bugs around today.

When I was young we played in dirt - made mud pies, played in the chicken huts at grandad's farm, handled the tiny chicks, gave the pig a good scratch and generally got filthy. We always came clean at the end of the day, and apart from ringworm once, I don't think we came to any harm.

I don't advocate not handwashing after the toilet, or keeping ourselves clean, but we all need 'a peck of dirt' or whatever the old saying was!

Off for a soak in some bubbles!

Elisabeth

Thanks Elisabeth! I quite expected to get shouted down.

Hi, Jean, I thoughly agree. even Doctors think that kids need to build up natural immunity to bacteria.

I also used to say when mine were young, a mucky child is a happy child.

Can anyone solve a puzzle for me? One particular child of mine, used to have a bath, put on clean pj's,get into a clean bed, and still wake up dirty in the morning.

I used to call him a muck magnet.

We have been to a donkey sanctuary today with the children. I had chapter and verse from my Mum before we went about cleanliness and disinfecting our hands.( I am only 34!)
I am the opposite, my children are clean and wash hands before meals and after the toilet but I am not obsessed with this. My daugter has had only one course of anti biotics in her life whilst my son who has many other health problems rarely has vomitting and dioreah (sp)
My Mum goes mad at me if the kids drop food on the floor and I tell them to blow it and if it looks ok eat it!!!
Some people are far too obsessed, how can we expect our children to build up a tolerance if we never expose them?
Claire x

Did he sleep walk Annina?

Oh No Jean - You definitely won't get shouted down here! Overcleanliness is one of the curses of today - Ranking with Health & Safety! The only no-nos with animals were always - No contact with sheep for pregnant women. No touching dog-doo and don't stand directly behind the horse!! Farm children were usually the healthiest - we drank raw milk too! I don't think it's a coincidence that between 2 classes (about 90 children in the 50's) - only one child had Asthma. As Bernard Miles used to say - the odd tadpole in the water helps out with the meat ration!!

Paula,

I love 'the tadpole in the water'. Must remember it for the future.

I used to love 'raw' milk. It was a million miles from the semi-skimmed in my fridge just now. I did buy some full fat a while ago, when I had some family staying, with a toddler, and I had forgotten just how nice it tasted.

Elisabeth

Why not just carry and use hand sanitiser if in doubt. My kids were brought up with dogs geese hens ducks etc and never had a problem and does that mean that they never get near other humans who can pass on as many germs as the animals, possibly more. May not be able to follow this thread as I can only use the reply box once. Elaine.

When my daughter was young (over 40 years ago) my then doctor told me that young mothers were too hygiene conscious and should allow a little dirt into their childrens lives. After that I rarely used disenfectant and just observed the normal hygiene rules of hand washing. My son only ever had antibiotics once, when he had measles and one dose and he perked straight backup, daughter too had very few doses and they were rarely ill unless they caught the usual bugs at school.
I recently read that spray disenfectants do no good, all that is needed is a wash down with hot water and washing upo liquid which is what I do.

Couldn't agree more.

I was brought up in the 1950's and our favourite place to play was "on the hills" (bit of waste land in reality).... hide and seek and cowboys and indians etc. Always came home filthy. Good scrub at the kitchen sink at the end of the night and a bath on Sunday!!.

My lads, now in their mid to late twenties were always allowed to play in their dens and my daughter (now 15) was known as the "muck magnet! !!..... still is on occasion. lol

Always knew when there were children in the house..... the soap was dirty.

Nowt wrong with a bit of muck to keep the germs at bay.

Libby x

Right - we are all agreed then. It is good to play in mud and get dirty.

I am off to play in mud in the morning, providing it is fine. This is commonly called gardening, but by the state I get in sometimes it looks as if I have been just playing mud pies.

Sleep well,
Elisabeth
xx

Jean.....whole heartedly agree with you:o))))
Gawd my 2 used to dig holes in the back garden with intentions of reaching Australia....my mother had 8 dogs and my children were fine. l used to make mud pies for my dad, we had dogs, cats, mice, chickens, goats. Our kids today are molly coddled.
Fancy not being able to play "conkers". ridiculous!!!

jude:o)

Quite right, when we wuzz yung we ad no breakfast unless we licked the insects off the white lines in the road, but we were lucky, some kids never had a road so they had to make do with the farm tracks......

Bob

Yerr. right Bob.

You lived in the country. We had bomb sites.

lol. xx

No Libby I wuz one of yuzz I wuzz in lunnon durin the war and we played in bombed 'ouses an stuff all that plaster and brick dust...... lead water pipes n fings....... the white lines wuzz so the lorries could see the edge of the roads....on the A13 in the dark.....

Bob

I fully agree with you about children being brought up in a too sanitised atmosphere - your'e talking to someone who used to laugh when her children stripped off and covered themselved in mud, those same children drank unpasteurised milk - as did I - even when pregnant - but the E.coli that is causing the problem - E.coli 0157 is a mutant - first identified in 1982 - so no problem to us or many of our children in the past, but a problem now since it has spread.
http://www.ecoli-uk.com/understandingit.php

I too agree, my son was out playing in a dog walk area making dens among the bushes and such, no problems for him.

On a slightly different tack, when I was about 11 I started getting a rash on my hands and feet, elbows and knees and in my mouth, spots that itched and turned into blisters and very painful, couldn't bend my hands or the papery blisters would split open or hurt, couldn't do much for myself etc etc
My Mum took me to the doctor, who was an ex Army doc, very terse, and the first thing he said was 'What dirt has she been playing in?' Mum was horrified, 'My daughter doesn't play in dirt' and indeed I didn't really altho did all the normal things like skipping and sitting on walls with my friends and going on play equipment on the park etc The docs never did find out what caused it and altho it happened every six months or so and meant time off school, it gradually stopped and I only had a slight episode of it when I was 22, no more touch wood lol, for forty years

Lizx

There has been loads said about the new cleaning sprays mainly anti bacterial sprays that are now available for the kitchen etc causing lack of immunity in children to some diseases.

I am a bit of a clean freak, well a bad one really, but I have not gone out to buy all these new fangled cleaners and hope I never will.

A good clean cloth and warm soapy water works just as well. I had a very sickly child 30 years ago with a low immune system. Her specialist advised that things in the home were not to be sanitised, kept clean yes, so that she would eventually build up her immune system from every day exposure.

She is now mostly healthy and did survive her childhood without having her world disinfected.

Gail

I made some blackberry muffins the other day and,do you know,when you put the mix in the tin to bake it looks grey,just like a proper mud pie.

Once I have cooked it it tastes pretty authentic too!

Did you used to eat "bread and cheese",hawthorn buds and leaves.The berries are a bit chammy I found.