Having a Clean Home Might Be Bad for Your Baby

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

22 Sep 2008 07:54 AM

Did you go through a period of nesting before the birth of your baby? Where you frantically cleaning and organizing? Most of us go through that time, close to birth, where we want to make sure that we are prepared and that everything is ready for our new little one.

After baby is born, we try to balance all of that newborn care with creating a clean and safe environment. We scrub and sanitize to keep our babies healthy. But having a home that is too clean might be bad for your baby. There is a lot of research to support this.

Let's take a look at our old friend the dust mite (a collective "eewwww!" please). These are tiny creatures that live in the dust in your home, the mattresses, the curtains, etc. Many people are allergic to these little guys, and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends that parents be very aggressive at removing dust mites to lessen the chance that a child will have asthmatic symptoms (in children who have asthma). But studies, such as one that was published recently in the medical journal Allergy, has shown that there is in fact no correlation between the number of dust mites present in a child's environment and asthmatic symptoms.

Okay, so if this is true, how is cleaning possibly harmful? There are two schools of thought on how this might be so. The first points to studies that have been done showing that children who are exposed to more allergens, such as dust (mites), dirt and pet dander, have less of a chance of developing allergies. The theory is that the exposure to allergens may strengthen the immune system and prevent the body from seeing allergen triggers as something that requires a reaction.

The second school of thought is that exposure to all of those chemical cleaners may be harmful to the respiratory system. You can get around this by using natural cleaners, such as vinegar.

So relax, enjoy your baby and let a little dust gather here and there.

Click here for more articles by Mary Ann Romans.

Related Posts:

Frugal Cleaning Arsenal

Home Chore List: Annual Cleaning Chores (1)

How to Hand Wash Clothing

Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger