hand wash your dishes with that sketchy sponge, it's good for ur kids [View all]

[Liberal_in_LA]

Most parents want their children to live in an environment that's clean and sanitary. We all buy home appliances that allow us to keep our homes as spotless as possible with little effort.

But increasingly, research indicates that a little bit of dirt and bacteria may be a good thing. The newest study to lend support for the so-called "hygiene hypothesis" finds children are less likely to have allergies if they live in homes where dishes and food utensils are washed by hand rather than in a dishwasher. The hygiene hypothesis is the idea that early exposure to an array of different microbes is needed to help a child develop a healthy immune system.

"The whole idea is that humans and all mammals live in homeostasis with all their bacteria in their lungs, skin and GI tract," David Rosenstreich, chief of the division of the allergy and immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, told CBS News. "Having a lot of different bacteria growing inside you tends to stimulate the immune system and makes things stronger."

The new study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, involved 1,029 children aged 7 and 8 from Sweden. Families filled out questionnaires about their children's history of asthma, eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis (mucous membrane inflammation that causes itchy and watery eyes and congested sinuses).

The researchers found that children living in homes where dishes were done the old-fashioned way -- by hand with a sponge -- were far less likely to have these common allergic conditions.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hand-wash-dinner-plates-to-protect-kids-from-allergies/