People are SSSSSSOOOOOO 'effin' insensitive.

[youarekidding]

Just a rant. One of my (lovely) collegues decided to tell me an anecdote today about how they think allergies are on the increase because we keep our children too clean and wrapped up in cotton wool compared to how they use to be.

Great FFS so now it's my fault.

BTW it's not true I routinely chucked DS outside in the garden to eat plants and worms - he still has severe hayfever.

Rant away. I think there are many of us who feel your pain, and these mumsnet boards are just the place for a good rant!!!

I agree wholeheartedly that what your colleague said is very annoying. I feel like I've been told about the 'clean hypothesis' about a hundred million times by well meaning people who seem to think I have never heard it before.

Like you, I have no problem with my DS getting dirty! I don't think that being too clean had anything to do with him developing allergies, particularly as he was reacting to traces of proteins in my breastmilk by the time he was about 3 weeks old.

I always find the 'too clean' explanation hilarious! Anyone who's ever seen my house will know that this couldn't possibly be the case for my kids! In fact, having a DS who's touch allergic has been a real challenge for me as it means I have to wipe the table and kitchen tops all the time - definitely not something I used to do very regularly

Thanks, DS allergies are fairly recent, although lots of nasal problems and chest problems as a child which may be related. Incidently chest is fine now.

DS seems bad when around trees etc (hayfever) but he still went to a friends 4 hour party in the woods at the weekend. Came home muddy, wet and very snotty but also happy. I was extremely proud of myself for letting him go (45 minutes away without me), as the party mum is EY worker and epi-pen trained.

Why do people feel the need when you move forward to slap you with the wet fish designed to slap them with.

as a child I meant baby. He's only 6yo now.

Some people are just 'oh-so-helpful' aren't they?

I must admit though, that I do think the effect of some of the chemicals in the antibacterial and laundry products etc on our immune systems is something worth researching.

I developed hayfever when I was 7 (now 26 and still have it ).

My mum has an obsessive cleanliness routine (she suffers with mh issues) and will clean the house top to bottom everyday. There never was/is a speck of dust in the house. I think it may possibly have contributed, but my mum will clean from 6am until about 9pm at night some days, which is far more than your average person (including me ) spends.

I think there is a possibility that extreme cleanliness could have contributed. But I also think it's modern life, such as diet, we don't exercise outdoors as much etc. More research is needed but unfortunately hayfever is life threatening so I doubt much will be done

I don't think people should have a go though, your house can harbour far worse diseases if it's not clean. I wouldnt have a go at my mum about it

I totally agree with you. If I hear the 'too clean' theory one more f**king time, I will not be accountable for my actions.

We are the most outdoorsy family i know and there is nothing too clean about my house. I can concusively say that dd2 ate a woodlouse at 8 months!

What is it about allergies that has so many people looking for a reason - in front of me? These theories pretty much always come back to something that I their mum has done/ eaten/not done - weaned too early, weaned too late, gave them too much variety of food, gave them too little variety of food, breast fed, didn't breast feed and my all time favourite from the MIL lives in a city!

I usually smile at said f**kwit and say through gritted teeth 'That's not what our specialist says'

of course , whats really annoying is that they dont understand what 'too clean' means. for that you have to grasp that the opposite , or prevention of developing allergies is far dirtier than mere household dirt.

you have to have close contact with a farm animal, like rolling and shoveling its waste, before you get pregnant, and after, take infant and let it roll, (and possibly eat) in close contact with, say, a cow. This is based on the study of children of farmers and their low incidence of allergies. However , even that is not for all , its unknown why, but pig farmers have a higher than usual incidence of asthma.
so with all that , and hearing people witter on about the hygeine theory, is I agreee totally annoying.

When DS had the statutory HDM thrown into his allergy tests I did joke to the Cons Pead he'd done well up yo now if he was allergic.

Yes BB it was something on the news at the weekend.

And actually hayfever can be life threatening. I know both my DS and BB's DS were both very close to full blown anaphylactic shock back in April when Pollen count was ridiculously high.

Why don't people just butt out!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two bits of info for my MP pals here:

The Panorma (or was it Horizon) programme on why all these allergies a while ago did add hygene as an influencing factor - however the point was two-fold:

• increase in irritants we are exposed to - pollution, chemicals etc
• at the same time as our keep out skin so clear we expose the dermo to these irritants more (no defensive layer of dirt - though my 8 year works hard on this one)

AND all this happening too quickly for our immune systems to adapt to the change in environment ...

And 2) DS' allergy nurse does ask to babies to be rolled in dirt when they're born and feels we ought to challenge our babies immune systems more early on than we do.

PS Good rant - like it!

Well DS has completed a very un sucessful science experiment on ariel actilift. I will not be using it again. So I guess there's some truth in the hygeine thing.

He might grow out of it of course? Don't shoot me, I jest. I'm just fed up with hearing that one!!!!!!!! aaarh! Rant on dear ranter.. :)

Well, my dad grew up on a farm (sheep and dairy, I think) and he had asthma, eczema, dog, rabbit and cat hair allergies so I'm not sure what his parents should have done!

I've got skin allergies (no washing up for me ) and DD's allergic to cmp and eggs. I would say there's a genetic component to our allergies, rather than an environmental one.

I've also never been accused of having a house that's too clean by anyone who's been in it.

Had another 'will he grow out of it?' this morning. Managed to smile through gritted teeth while imagining hitting her with a wet fish. CokeFan I agree that the genetic link is far more plausible, my DH has asthma and allergic to nuts while one of my brothers has eczema and the other has asthma so there was always going to be a good chance of atopic conditions in my kids.

My dad has hayfever, brother had childhood excema and I had childhood asthma. DS Dad has 3 severe allergic reactions with facial swelling/ breathing difficulties to an unknown cause. Seems that DS has inherited this. His dad hasn't had one since he was 10 (so 20 years) but I am just accepting DS' allergies and taking each day as it comes.