Allergies and Cleanliness – Too much of a good thing?

In a paper published online in the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology researchers have shown that the concept of excessive cleanliness may hurt a child’s immune system and set them up for a lifetime of allergies. The study was on 58 wild rats and 10 wild mice versus 45 lab rats and 20 lab mice. They determined that the animals that lived in the wild had much higher levels of immunoglobulin-E than did the animals bred in captivity in clean conditions.

While this study alone does not prove that cleanliness is the cause, it is just another in a series of confirmatory research papers that suggest that trying to disinfect everything may not be beneficial for kids health. But then again ask any kid what they’d rather do, clean their room or play in the mud?