Children Play Barns = Germ Farms ?

Tinder Surprise

You know those buildings we bring the kids to for birthday parties with those areas containing tubes, tunnels, slides, climbing ropes and webs, as well as inflatables and trampolines, and large pools of colourful plastic balls...

Well no more for my kids in anyway!

Every time they return within 48hrs one of them has some illness.
and before I continue I am in no way a prude, and the two kids are sturdy little fellas, but anecdotally I have noticed this trend after attending these in door areas.

and when you think about it I doubt half of these areas are cleaned properly (even if you could clean them thoroughly which I doubt) and a couple of hundred kids on a daily basis , week-in-week out there is bound to be a lot of germs, bacteria, faecal matter around.

yes its all part of being a kid and building up their little immune systems, but I think these play barns are a new phenomenon and bring their own serious (new) dangers.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Tinder Surprise wrote: »

yes its all part of being a kid and building up their little immune systems, but I think these play barns are a new phenomenon and bring their own serious (new) dangers.

In what way do you think schools, sportsclubs, shopping centres or even the great outdoors is any cleaner?

BMJD

Gems build character!

Tinder Surprise

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

In what way do you think schools, sportsclubs, shopping centres or even the great outdoors is any cleaner?

easier to clean, maybe?

kylith

Nah, it's schools that are the problem; kids corralled in close quarters for up to 8 hours a day - that's where stuff like this current lurgy is coming from.

jamesbere

Mud baths, only way to build up the immune system.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Tinder Surprise wrote: »

easier to clean, maybe?

I'd argue that places where the business is kids pay even more attention to clenliness than anywhere else.

If we're just talking bugs and colds - these things take 2-4 days to incubate, so there's no way you can trace it to a common cause. They've more than likely been at school every time within the same timeframe as the play centre.

Of course, it could be one specific playcentre - in which case fair enough - but it sounds a bit like you've got a vendetta agasint them?

Menas

Kids need germs! They need to be exposed to all these things early in life to get their immune system working properly.
Else we end up with a generation of kids with all sorts of allergies in adulthood!

Tinder Surprise

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

I'd argue that places where the business is kids pay even more attention to clenliness than anywhere else.

If we're just talking bugs and colds - these things take 2-4 days to incubate, so there's no way you can trace it to a common cause. They've more than likely been at school every time within the same timeframe as the play centre.

Of course, it could be one specific playcentre - in which case fair enough - but it sounds a bit like you've got a vendetta agasint them?

no vendetta I can assure you.

kneemos

Kids getting illnesses is kinda what they do is it not?

Tinder Surprise

Menas wrote: »

Kids need germs! They need to be exposed to all these things early in life to get their immune system working properly.
Else we end up with a generation of kids with all sorts of allergies in adulthood!

no arguments with that

The_Valeyard

Kids are biological weapons. Just the way it is.

Wibbs

Tinder Surprise wrote: »

easier to clean, maybe?

The great outdoors is easier to clean? The more a kids immune system is tested it seems the better for the kid and later adult.

Ignatius in bloom

Wrap them in cotton wool that will stop those nasty bugs.

Fair play though in tarring all of those places though, who knew germs can congregate in common areas. Learns something new everyday.

The Randy Riverbeast

Children's primary purpose in nature is to spread disease so it wouldn't surprise me that anywhere with a lot of children is like that.

Hande hoche!

Marinade everything in Dettol.

Ignatius in bloom

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Marinade everything in Dettol.

Even the kids?

Ignatius in bloom

Especially the kids says you.

smash

Ball pools have shockingly bad hygiene standards. I remember a few years ago a study carried out in the States found some pretty fcuked up stuff in ball pools. Apart from feces, piss and other bodily fluids they found syringes and even snakes.

Hande hoche!

Ignatius in bloom wrote: »

Especially the kids says you.

The kids can have a dry rub of baking soda.

whisky_galore

We've gone from helicopter parenting to dressing them all in full body containment suits like in Outbreak.

arayess

Menas wrote: »

Kids need germs! They need to be exposed to all these things early in life to get their immune system working properly.
Else we end up with a generation of kids with all sorts of allergies in adulthood!

this is so true.
I also firmly believe those dettol ads for cleaning your kitchen 99.99% of bacteria isn't helping your immune system in the long term.

Same goes for fancy soaps that add in stuff like tea tree oil etc...
As the dose is probably not significant enough to do any good but enough to allow germs to develop an immunity to it over time.

SEPT 23 1989

I encourage my kids to get their hands full of muck in the garden

looksee

I'm surprised at the almost totally negative response to this topic. I don't believe in those antiseptic sprays for the kitchen, and I do agree that kids need exposure to 'germs', but I agree with the OP that the potential for spreading illness in the adventure barns for young children is a bit high. And I did take my own kids to them when they were young.

The great outdoors can be mucky ok, but its generally 'clean dirt' and it at least gets a shower of rain, or exposure to sunshine occasionally!

spurious

In my day we ate chewing gum picked up off the path and used to come home in the evenings with dirt caked onto us. Just one child in my school year of 153 had asthma. We were built and made hardy back then.

The Backwards Man

I'm not going to start another when I was a wain ramble but yeah, far too much hygeine bollocks these days, and not enough cleaning at the same time.

We were clattered all day in all kinds of crap, and if you went to the doctor or the hospital you were hung with the smell of Jeyes fluid.

Nowadays kids get the run of a babywipe every two minutes, and the doctor's surgery smells like the deli counter in Centra

The Backwards Man

looksee wrote: »

I'm surprised at the almost totally negative response to this topic. I don't believe in those antiseptic sprays for the kitchen, and I do agree that kids need exposure to 'germs', but I agree with the OP that the potential for spreading illness in the adventure barns for young children is a bit high. And I did take my own kids to them when they were young.

The great outdoors can be mucky ok, but its generally 'clean dirt' and it at least gets a shower of rain, or exposure to sunshine occasionally!

Barns are for three things kids should never be exposed to.

Hay, calving and riding.

uck51js9zml2yt

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Kids are biological weapons. Just the way it is.

Perhaps we could use them to defend ourselves when Europe invades Ireland:rolleyes:

kylith

arayess wrote: »

this is so true.
I also firmly believe those dettol ads for cleaning your kitchen 99.99% of bacteria isn't helping your immune system in the long term.

Same goes for fancy soaps that add in stuff like tea tree oil etc...
As the dose is probably not significant enough to do any good but enough to allow germs to develop an immunity to it over time.

Jesus, those ads and that stuff annoys me. I've been seeing one recently for anti-bacterial washing powder for clothes that's making me apoplectic. We don't need to have a bacterial genocide on every surface in our homes, use it if you've rubbed raw chicken on the kids' toys, sure, but a bit of dirt is grand, and you can give stuff a blast of a steamer these days that'll do the job without the need for chemicals.

looksee wrote: »

I'm surprised at the almost totally negative response to this topic. I don't believe in those antiseptic sprays for the kitchen, and I do agree that kids need exposure to 'germs', but I agree with the OP that the potential for spreading illness in the adventure barns for young children is a bit high. And I did take my own kids to them when they were young.

The play-barns are nowhere near as bad as schools though, especially when you consider that a lot of parents wouldn't take a poorly child to a birthday party but will feel obliged to send them to school, and schools have a lot more kids in close proximity for a lot longer than a play area would.

diomed

Tinder Surprise wrote: »

You know those buildings we bring the kids to for birthday parties with those areas containing tubes, tunnels, slides, climbing ropes and webs, as well as inflatables and trampolines, and large pools of colourful plastic balls...

We only had my grandfather's farm cow dung heap. It was endlessly fascinating.
You just don't get the same fly count on a bouncy castle.

Medusa22

Like others have said, I think that children need to be exposed to bacteria to build up their immune systems when they are young, and to avoid allergies when they're older. I don't think that playbarns should be avoided, and like others have said, it takes viruses and bacteria a few days to incubate/multiply so it can be difficult to pinpoint where you picked up something, and schools are one of the worst germ factories.

This is coming from someone who is highly susceptible to bacterial infections and as a result has had MRSA hanging out in my lungs for the last eight years.