My Beef with Sanitizing

Written October 7, 2007
The following was brought on by a visit to Sophie's doctor for a check up. Sophie's pediatrician was my pediatrician when I was young, so he's been doing this a long time. He told us that he sees so many more kids for common cold and asthma now than he did 10 years ago... at least, double. He blames sanitze this, sanitize that attitudes by parents. Here's my plan.
I refuse to sanitize. I want my family to have the immune system of a 95 year old hitchhiker. That way if the terrorists ever invade with viruses, we'll be the ones left to repopulate America and it will be a smarter place. (I have one other family in with me on this, so no, incest will not be playing a role in my plan for world domination.)
But seriously, what's up with the germ phobia thing? Are Americans so gullible that they have allowed commercial advertising to convince them they will die if they don't have CLOROX disinfecting wipes on every counter and PURELL hand sanitiser in every pocket? And don't tell me that viruses are worse and germs are bigger than when we were kids. If you had seen some of the things I did, places I went and stuff I ate when I was a kid, you'd be shocked that I haven't morphed into a walking poison symbol. But guess what-- I never got sick. And by "never" I mean I can think of chicken pox, 3 or 4 colds and 2 stomach viruses in 18 years. That means I spent a total of no more than about 30 days sick in 18 years. Stephen too. He had migranes from an early age, but other than that, the kid never got sick. And he was a dirty little dude, let me tell you!
My point, we have immune systems. If they aren't allowed to do their job by fighting illness, b/c you fight it for them, then when something big hits, you're toast... REALLY sick, maybe dead, toast.