I’m hearing lot of moms say that it’s ok to let children play in dirt, attend daycare with sick kids, not sanitize the living spaces too much, put dirty stuff in their mouths because they can only build their immune strength by getting sick first(?!).
I have read the hygiene hypothesis paper and many research papers that have disputed that paper aswell so I’m just curious to learn the science behind the idea ‘let them get sick first’.
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Most of the bacteria we encounter in the world are harmless, some are beneficial or necessary (especially in the gut), and a few are harmful. The young immune system knows how to get rid of invaders but not which ones to get rid of. Early exposure to a wide range of them (like those found in dirt or in a normal living space) let’s the immune system figure out that it can and should leave some of them alone.
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