so what is your opinion on the 'new' report that there are so many allergies because parent are too clean?

[raggedtrouseredphilanthropist]

Cos I think its a load of rubbish, but I wondered what everyone else thought. I most certainly was not overly clean with ds - we had 2 dogs, and lets just say housework isnt my favourite thing to do, and I NEVER use antibacterial cleaner as I think its just wrong!
I think ds is allergic, with eczema, as I have asthma and allergies and his dad has very mild eczema. Its in his genes. But of course, not all cases are like ours..
Does anyone think they may have a point, or, like me, do you think its more genetics or something else.

chequesmate No, - in truth I hoover never. My DH hoovers once a month. We have a mix of carpets and laminate.

In fact my DH was just complaining about how often he is having to hoover just the other day.

I reckon it looks okay, but I don't have high housekeeping standards.

There might be something in it but its all a bit too simplistic to be completely true. I don't think chemical cleaners do anyone any good but I would be surprised if they were 100% to blame. What about pollution, changes in diet etc.?

As usual its the parents fault.

Is it bad then to use antibacterial spray and wash your hands with antibacterial soap? What about if you are dealing with sickness bugs galore?

Nappyaddict, my view is that there are bacteria all around us, and our bodies should know how to deal with most of them, most of the time.

If you destroy 99% of bacteria around your LOs, then your LOs don't build up immunity to any of them. So the normal day-to-day stuff which doesn't make most people ill, may make your LOs ill, just cos their bodies don't have naturally built up immunity.

This becomes obvious when some kids have loads of sick-days when they first start nursery or school.

Soooooo. keep your food prep areas/bathrooms/house generally clean of course. Use hot water and detergents to clean surfaces. Blast round with extra bleach wipes IF someone in the house has an infectious lurgi.
But anti-bac seems an unnecessary evil, unless you have a depressed immune system or some such.

anti bac stuff only necessariy, imo, when dealing with patients...other than family...or in specific scenarios, where immunesystem is seriously compromised...

anti bac stuff only necessariy, imo, when dealing with patients...other than family...or in specific scenarios, where immunesystem is seriously compromised...

DS once saw the consultant who wrote this report.

Only once. After he told me it was OK to give my severely milk-allergic son egg AT HOME seeing as his skin prick test came up negative, even though he was exhibiting classic allergy symptoms, I asked to see someone different.

Just my experience, but personally I don't have much faith in him.

I agree with the report in as much as my allergies were much worse when I lived with my parents- Mum was a housekeeping freak but we also lived in a very industrial area.
However, I have lived in damp parts of the country where my allergies have been worse, and drier parts where it has been better.
I now live in a small village with wheat grown everywhere around and my wheat allergy has started (didn't know I was allergic before I moved!).
I agree that my allergies have been made worse by Mum's cleaning & living in industrial areas.
However, I don't agree this works for animal allergies as my father had very very bad asthma before he moved out of a house with dogs and pigeons!
Interesting about the first 7 years thing! I would definately agree with this as my allergies tend to change every 7 years! Just reaching 35 so am hoping it will all get better soon, not worse.
Oh, and DD has hayfever which has got better over time but animal allergies that haven't and she is nearly 7. Will be interesting to see how her's changes...

Dh also lived in a sterile bubble and his parents and siblings are the sickest people I know - they are permanently afflicted with something or other and pick up every bug going; I think between them they falsify national statistics on sick days.

OTOH I was brought up (despite eczema and hayfever) with hairy cats and although lived in a clean enough house spent a lot of time out in the local woods getting grubby. Allergy issues have cleared up (on the whole) as an adult by not using fabric softener and the like; dairy allergy has not been passed to any of the boys because (v definite statement warning!) they were exclusively breast fed which I wasn't.

Guess who doesn't get sick ... 10 years of marriage have allowed dh to assimilate a normal level of immunity and we are a (generally) robustly healthy family.

Forgot to say, once I moved in with DH my general health greatly improved too

my mother was always cleaning - her children didn't have allergies. I don't clean all the time and I often took my childen to a farm to see the nice cows and sheep - I have a child with severe nut allergy. So I think its bunk. However the parasitic worm bit seems more credible.

There is more evidence for the hygiene hypothesis than merely children growing up on farms being less likely to have allergies. Eldest children are more allergic than younger siblings, possibly because the youngest catch everything going from the eldest. Babies in households with cats are less likely to have allergies than other children - especially if the cat goes into the baby's bedroom.

The incidence of asthma goes up in households where people use air fresheners - possibly air fresheners are bad for you but more likely to be an association, because people who use air fresheners may be the sort of people who do an awful lot of cleaning.

I'm happy to take the message that a peck of dirt never hurt anyone and may actually do you some good... but I draw the line at parasites. Even though the research suggests exposure to them may be important in protecting children against allergies. I cannot bring myself to adopt Theo the Threadworm as a family pet.

Tatt - think food allergies may be a different category, all the research I've seen on the hygiene hypothesis related to asthma/eczema/rhinitis and so on. Not sure there is any evidence either way about any link to food allergy.

edam - I often have people suggest to me that my child's nut allergy is from being "too clean". They haven't seen inside my house!

The newspaper headlines, as usual, don't bear much relation to the research.

I don't think cleanliness has a baring on food allergies and the reporting should specify which allergens they refer to.
With regard to dustmite allergy, I do believe these are related to being to sterile. If the body is not exposed to small amounts of harmless bacteria from baby hood the body produces less immune responses, so when children are exposed at pre-school/school they have allergic reactions to normal bacteria. I think like everything dirt is good in moderation. However, allergies have been more prevalant in the last 20-30yrs which coincides with more centrally heated houses. Warm environments encourage bacteria growth and viruses to travel so is it possible that this has contributed to the rise in reported allergies. We also have more access to media and research so generally have more knowledge of symptoms which may mean that in fact numbers haven't increased but are just more widely reported than previous decades.

I remember reading about all that eldest sibling research a few years back too. It's not a theory I hold much truck with at all.

The genes have it, I reckon. Seems much more plausible

Most stuff seems to be an interaction between genes and environment, though. Unless you are unfortunate enough to have a purely genetic disease like CF.

If it was simply genetics, why would there be a difference between elder/younger siblings, or kids who live on farms/elswhere, or babies who share houses (and specifically bedrooms) with cats and those who don't?

yes, agreed edam. The underlying cause is genetic, causing your body to attack itself. There are many many possible triggers. And what people do is they pick up on one bit of research which tries to give evidence for one particular trigger. But it is highly unlikely that there is just one particular trigger. In days gone by, maybe there were very different triggers but it wasn't life-threatening so nothing was diagnosed or researched.

Personally I think research into just one possible trigger is all fairly inconsequential.

and none of this research has rung true in dd2's case so far, absolutely none of it, so it just irks me. But I'm well aware no research is based on one person's anecdotal experience.

No obviously all research finding work on the probability of something occurring /not occurring through chance, whether one variable causes another needs to be thoroughly tested by removing all extraneous variables, or as many as possible to reduce the chance of the results being through chance. Usually where repeated studys using the same method found the same results, the study can be regarded as reliable.

My house is always a mess and I have a dd with asthma, eczema and an egg allergy. I think she gets it from DH'S side of the family - they have a history of hayfever, rhinitis and mild asthma.

I wonder who is backing all this research on atopic triggers. Wouldn't surprise me if cleaning related companies featured.

The markets for cotton/silk clothing, speicla bedding, anti allergen hoovers, kind and wonderful moisturisers is HUGE