This fits with the “hygiene hypothesis,” which says that when children are exposed to germs early in life, their immune system gets trained to attack germs, rather than attacking itself as we see in allergies, asthma, and eczema
It would be interesting to see an allergy study on kids raised in their own home vs those that grew up in a group childcare setting. Speaking from experience as a parent, those places are like petri dishes for vile diseases. It seems like that would be a much more thorough exposure to disease than playing in the dirt and sucking a thumb.
I'd also be curious about children who grow up in rural, suburban and urban areas.
I live in New York, I often forget to wash my hands when I come home from riding the subway and start hugging my kid one of whose favorite games is "chew on dad". I'm trying to balance out the fear of her catching some exotic imported disease with the hope that her immune system is getting used to handling a variety of invaders.
You end up with highly contagious pathogens that you'd never find in your home (Hand, Foot & Mouth, for example) and higher incidence of things like conjunctivitis, but since everyone in licensed group care facilities is vaccinated against the real baddies, that stuff is no more frequent. What parents bank on is that the persistent coughs & colds that are so common will eventually lead to stronger immune systems. As a parent of 2 elementary school kids who both did group daycare/preschool, I have 0 useful data to share. My kids got sick regularly in preschool, don't get sick as often in elementary school, but when one gets sick (with a viral infection) generally everyone else in the family still gets sick, too.
The type of germs that kids share with each other are different to what you can pick up from the dirt. I suspect (though I would love to find evidence) that upper respiratory infections are far more common today than they were in the past. We now have dense cities, global travel, compulsory schooling, and a large global population for colds and flus to diversify in.
On the other hand we have less exposure to the bacteria and parasites that live in the dirt and on animals. They trigger (and modulate) a different part of the immune system associated with allergies.
My 3.5-year-old son sucks his thumb. His thumb looks weird, it's a bit more flat, but that's not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is his sucking has pushed his front tooth on that side out. It now looks crooked, and he's making it worse every day. That's the danger of thumb sucking IMO.
The article focuses on this issue when thumb-sucking begins to affect secondary teeth, as hammock and the article point out it becomes an issue when the behavior is retained with secondary teeth. 3.5 years seems like he's reaching the threshold for when to ween.
"There can be downsides to thumb sucking, as it can lead to problems from pushing secondary teeth as they come in. But those don’t come in until later, when children are in elementary school. Most children stop sucking their thumb by themselves before they get to elementary school. The American Dental Association recommends that parents start encouraging their children to stop sucking their thumb after age 4 — but even then, they advocate a gentle, positive approach. Many children suck to relieve anxiety, and making them anxious about sucking can backfire! Instead, praise children for not doing it — and help them find other ways of soothing themselves. Putting a Band-Aid on the thumb can help them remember; at night, using a sock or something similar can help with the child who sucks their thumb without realizing it. But again, this is only an issue for older children."
Interestingly, the position of the baby teeth greatly affect the adult teeth. As it was described to me, the baby teeth are essentially placeholders or spacers that reserve room for the adult teeth. If they are out of alignment or move to funny positions, your adult teeth end up in odd places.
My little brother was starting to have the same problem as his secondary teeth were coming in when he was five years old. The dentist sat down and simply told him: "if you keep sucking your thumb, your new teeth are going to come in crooked and it's going to look really bad, and we are going to have to do more adjustments and visits here". My brother stopped sucking his thumb cold-turkey.
FWIW, we just weaned (as in, this week) my 3.5yo daughter. That nasty nail polish stuff worked perfectly. Took her a little longer to fall asleep the first two nights, but now it's no big deal.
Anecdotally, I grew up in the Chinese countryside, spelunking through mud at the local pond to catch frogs for dinner and bathing maybe twice a week. It was only when I moved to the US, land of hand sanitizers and abundant soap, that I suddenly developed a mild allergy to pollen.
This is correct - it is common for folks that never before had allergies to develop them when they move to different countries. This is regardless of where folks grew up. Even moving from one region of the states to another can cause this in some folks, especially if the move is large.
Anecdotally, I grew up in the land of hand sanitizers and abundant soap, playing in mud, weeding the garden, and catching bugs. I had allergy shots until my teens, and I often still feel like I have a permanent minor cold, which gets better or worse, depending on what's blooming. Moving from Michigan to north Florida seems to have made it worse.
Same as you, I grew up in MI. Moved to Phoenix and my allergies cleared up. About 5 years later, I had seasonal allergies again and they seemed to be worse than ever.
I grew up playing outside all hours of the day/night, every season in Michigan. Rarely hand washing before eating and that kind of stuff. I never had issues with allergies.
I've lived in Boston and Seattle, no issues. Now I live in Dallas (again) and allergy season is not good. Pretty much a guaranteed sinus infection twice a year.
Similar story here - Home is in eastern NC, terrible allergy area, tons of pine trees and moisture) - but mostly places I visit I feel better, and then feel substantially worse when I return home.
I've heard that mobile phones are filthier than toilet seats, and plenty of young children have them these days. I've seen babies too young to walk or talk given electronic tablets to distract themselves with. I wonder if the trend toward youngsters interacting with electronic devices that are rarely if ever kept sanitary will help keep allergies at bay?
Nasal secretions should be good sources of airborne pathogens. Different pathogen profile from fingernails, etc. Wider challenges for a developing immune system.
I wonder what exposure is necessary to boost the immune system's handling of specific allergens. Are there immune-boosting workshops where children are exposed to allergens of all kinds (perhaps gradually increasing the exposure)? What is the economic impact of having a strong immune system vs weak immune system?
Heh, this is true, definitely the cheapest and probably the most fun for the children. But, what about a process that takes less time and can introduce allergens from around the world?
Well, of course, may a merciful God forfend we allow children to waste time. Gotta make sure Junior's up to the admission process for a top-tier pre-K, after all.
This is a bit pedantic, but allergies are the result of an overactive immune system, not a weak one. The immune system is treating harmless particles (pollen, dander, etc.) as dangerous pathogens that need to be dealt with harshly (sneezing, runny noses, etc.)
Some folks just have allergies - genetic predisposition, perhaps. It isn't that allergies were unknown before the 'modern' world, simply less common than they are now.
Yeah, I used to be gross when I was younger (biting my nails, nibbling on pens...), and it didn't prevent me from developing some of the worst allergies imaginable. I can't even eat 90% of food types lest I enter a pseudo-drunken allergic state of stupor.
Certain kinds of cigarette vapors make my ears and throat constrict in a matter of seconds.
Nope, both hash and weed makes me high and it's all cool and whatnot but after smoking weed my nose gets blocked for hours, can't breathe properly. I don't understand why weed does that and hash doesn't but it's what it is. Maybe it's the fertilizers used for growing weed (I was buying the high end stuff, hydroponic, etc) while hash is grown in Morocco without adding any fancy stuff but I'm not sure. I've decided to not smoke anything at all.
It would be interesting to see an allergy study on kids raised in their own home vs those that grew up in a group childcare setting. Speaking from experience as a parent, those places are like petri dishes for vile diseases. It seems like that would be a much more thorough exposure to disease than playing in the dirt and sucking a thumb.