Thinking Thursdays: Bad bugs, beware!

I confess, I am a germophobe. I have a tendency to wash my hands with soap pretty often after handling food, doing gardening, playing with the dog etc, and this tendency has become quite an obsession ever since baby came along. There's always all these thoughts about those bugs that are lurking around waiting to pounce on baby J as he crawls around putting things into his mouth... Crazy I know, but its just me!

As such, I have to admit I'm not really looking forward to going out to the field to catch crabs for my next round of experiments. After all, there have been cases where people get infected by flesh-eating bacteria after getting nipped by crabs, and having hubby recount how surgery is required to clean up the infected areas really makes me shudder...

Interestingly enough, apparently being too clean isn't a good thing. According to the "hygiene hypothesis", it seems that allergies and asthma are more likely to occur in children when the level of endotoxins (found in bacteria) are low. Children's immune systems need to be exposed to a certain amount of germs in order for the system to learn how to defend the body. So while I'm still going to wash my hands pretty frequently in certain circumstances, I'm trying to relax a little with regards to bugs and baby.

And since we are on this topic, here's one really cute book we are reading right now from the library:

Felicity Floo goes to the Zoo
I'm a sucker for anything that rhymes, so this book caught my eye when we went to the library. It's about this little girl who went to the zoo and spread her cold to all the animals, and the illustrations are really nice! It's a must read for those little ones who love animals, and a gentle reminder to wipe their runny noses on a tissue instead of their hands!