When it comes to having a baby, let's just say that there is what you expect to do as a parent and reality. I think this news falls into the reality category. You have a crying baby and the pacifier falls... You pray as you watch it tumble that it will land handle side down. The slow mo fall ends... not as you would have hoped. You invoke the five second rule and then realize that this strategy might not be good enough, so you... quickly pop the pacifier in your mouth, assuming you're getting the majority of the nasty germs off and then pop it back in baby's mouth, praying no one saw you do it.
Well, the good news is, the saliva in your mouth, according to this small study, may ward off allergies. (That's what we're talking about here folks.) They found that infants who had their pacifiers cleaned with parental saliva had fewer allergies and asthma than parents who didn't. Remember, the message is that we're raising our kids to be too germ free, and that might be potentially more dangerous than a bit of dirt. I always think of my grandmother's often heard adage: You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die.
So, will you or won't you?
Source:
Hesselmar, Bill, Sjöberg, Fei, Saalman, Robert, Åberg, Nils, Adlerberth, Ingegerd, & Wold, Agnes E. (2013). Pacifier Cleaning Practices and Risk of Allergy Development. Pediatrics. doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-3345
Photo © Monika Ribbe/Getty Images
Cleaning Pacifiers with Your Mouth originally appeared on About.com Pregnancy & Childbirth on Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at 12:43:21.
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