"Dirt can be good for children, say scientists"

Nevyn

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8373690.stm

"Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

Normal bacteria living on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt, the US team discovered.

The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses that can cause cuts and grazes to swell, they say.

Their work is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.

Experts said the findings provided an explanation for the "hygiene hypothesis", which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies.

Many believe our obsession with cleanliness is to blame for the recent boom in allergies in developed countries.

'Good' bacteria

Researchers from the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego, found a common bacterial species, known as Staphylococci, blocked a vital step in a cascade of events that led to inflammation.

Rates of allergy have tripled in the UK in the last decade. One in three people now has some kind of allergy
A spokeswoman for Allergy UK

By studying mice and human cells, they found the harmless bacteria did this by making a molecule called lipoteichoic acid or LTA, which acted on keratinocytes - the main cell types found in the outer layer of the skin.

The LTA keeps the keratinocytes in check, stopping them from mounting an aggressive inflammatory response.

Head of the research Professor Richard Gallo said: "The exciting implication of the work is that it provides a molecular basis to understand the hygiene hypothesis and has uncovered elements of the wound repair response that were previously unknown.

"This may help us devise new therapeutic approaches for inflammatory skin diseases."

The lobby group Parents Outloud said the work offered scientific support for its campaign to stop children being mollycoddled and over-sanitised.

A spokeswoman for Allergy UK said there was a growing body of evidence that exposure to germs was a good thing.

But she said more research was needed.

"Rates of allergy have tripled in the UK in the last decade. One in three people now has some kind of allergy.

"Some of this might be that people are better informed. But a lot of it is genetic as well as down to our environment," she said. "

As my granny used to say, little harm ever came from sucking a stone.

smelltheglove

A dirty child is a happy child....

silverharp

we tried to keep away from the whole anticptic thing. I remember I used to bring mine down to the beach and the first thing they did was a mouth full of sand. I reckoned they'd learn eventually:D

Quality

I always let my babies lie and play in the grass in the garden when they were babies...

Not at the moment obviously, fecking garden is like a swamp!!

simu

Woot!

Although I'm amazed anyone can stop kids playing with dirt tbh!

Nevyn

It happens the same way there are indoor cats there are in door kids who go from the house to the car to creche / to school, to home, to indoor activies and just are not let out to much around in the garden.

Woddle

Sure theres nothing new there, sure they did an episode on this topic in House last week

cbyrd

haha i stopped sterilising my eldest girls bottles the day i saw her sucking on the wheel of her buggy... she was 8 and a half months old!!! she's rarely ever sick!!!:D

Cabaal

This isn't a surprised and its been said for years, now maybe some foolish parents might listen and stop being over protective and cleaning every little thing the kid every coms in contact with.

Kids have to get sick to build up defenses in the long term its that simple

stovelid

Kids play with dirt, eat dirt and roll in dirt and the human race has not died out yet.

Funnily enough, my sister-in-law has one of the most obsessively clean houses I've ever seen and it never stopped her kids getting sick.

Deliverance

Well if a scientist said it, it must be true;)