I knew it! Cleanliness leads to disease

[elf]

When my daughter was born, my husband got all up-in-arms about having people wash their hands before holding her and nonsense like that. I pshawed him out of his paranoia, and lo and behold, we have healthy kids!

My sister-in-law is the type that has tubs of bleach wipes all over the house and is almost fanatical about cleanliness - and her kids are allergic to everything.

Granted, I don't think that overprotection is the sole cause of her kids' health problems, but I also don't doubt the fact that exposure to all the nasties has helped my own kids' systems stronger.