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Home › Articles › Home Safety Issues › What's Hiding on Your Floor?

What's Hiding on Your Floor?

Bacteria, Germs and Viruses That May Be Lurking Where Baby Crawls

By Kelly Burgess

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

This, explains Dr. Chiu, is called the "hygiene hypothesis." The idea is that the rise in allergic diseases and allergies can be linked to the fact that we've become a much cleaner society than we were 100 years ago when people were routinely exposed to the natural environment – in all its dirty glory – from a very young age. Now that our immune systems don't have to work so hard, the cells have become hyper vigilant and now look for other – often harmless – things to fight.

Also, Dr. Chiu worries somewhat that the strong cleaners that might be used to clean some of these germs could actually be more harmful to a child than the germs. "Some of these harsh chemicals can cause irritant reactions, such as rash or contact dermatitis," Dr. Chiu says. "For children who are susceptible to respiratory issues they can also cause respiratory problems or flare ups of asthma."

Moderation, Dr. Chiu says, is the ideal. While floors don't need to be clean enough to eat off, they do need to be cleaned. Here are a few suggestions for cutting down on the germs that are tracked into the house, as well as practical cleaning tips:

Prevention

  • Take shoes off before entering the house. Petersen says she's always just put her foot down (so to speak) on the issue of taking off shoes, and she's ignored the hurt feelings of those who didn't like it (and they eventually got over it). As she points out, it's your house and your children.

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