How Did We Survive?

[iheartkids]

When I was growing up my family was pretty healthy but we did not have all the fancy cleaning products that are out now. We didn't have Clorox wipes, antibacterial hand gel, germ killing kleenex. My mom didn't wipe down everything in the store/restaurants before I touched it. So why does it seem like people are so much more sick NOW then back when I was young? It seems like every kid has allergies, there are a ton more "flu strains" going around (when I was a kid there was one, IT WAS CALLED THE FLU), and so much more respiratory infections than I have ever noticed. Could our new-trendy OCDness causing our society to not be able to fight off germs? Those of you who have been doing this for 20+ years, have you noticed anything different as far as the kinds of illnesses or the amount of illnesses from when you first started daycare? I'm curious to know...

[Blackcat31]

Yes absolutley!

Anti-bacterial things are good... to a point but I strongly believe that over use of these products has ruined our body's natural ability to fight off things.

The kids have non-stop colds all year round and it seems every kid has asthma. :confused:

[nannyde]

We have a terrible diet. When I was coming up my family spent about twenty percent of our income on food. Now we spend twenty percent on health care and about eight percent on food.

Junk food was so expensive in those days that we only got them as a big treat. Every sweet we had was from scratch.

The chemicals used on the food we do have didn't exist when I was growing up. Our bodies are undernourished and overfed. Our chemical exposure is very high.

We have a huge amount of corn in our diet. Nearly everything has corn in it or it is corn fed. The animals we eat aren't supposed to eat corn. They are supposed to eat grass. When you eat animals that have been confined and improperly fed you will be eating sick animals and introducing their sickness into us.

Our kids get a fraction of the exercise we did as kids. We had to go outside and play unless it was dangerously cold. Now we have a nation eating crappy food in front of a screen from the time they can walk till the grave.

It's a viscious cycle. Terrible food and little exercise. It's making us weak.

[dEHmom]

I have not been doing this for 20+ years, but I was having this conversation last week.

IMO, delaying foods from infants, even pablum, protecting them from every single little speck of dust, dirt, dander, and sheltering them from the cold, is making the problem worse.

Do you know, that not only is my children's school (and all schools in town here), peanut free, many classrooms or the whole school is also, fish free, egg free, and onion free???? I really do struggle some days trying to send something safe. When I went to school, if you had an allergy, you either went home for lunch because your parents wanted you to, OR, you sat at a different table (i don't mean alone, I mean away from the problem food) and just made sure you didn't eat or touch it. NOW let me clarify, I am lucky that my kids dont' have any allergies (yet?) and I understand keeping these kids that do safe at school. But the amount of allergies in kids is growing. And I think it comes down to when they were babies and they didn't get to try all those foods. I still agree to holding off on peanut butter and fish for the really young ones. maybe eggs too to a degree. But I have noticed that since they started pushing back the age for peanut butter from 1 to 3 years, there is more and more allergies to peanuts that I am becoming aware of.



I think kids need to build up immunity to things, and without being given the opportunity, their body will late reject them.

[Cat Herder]

International travel and trade has increased. Newer strains of disease, insect, animal, reptile and invasive plant species are being transported in and out daily without our knowledge.

I am sure some of that has to do with it, but the rest is just education from statistics and research.

I know our graveyards are full of young children and adults that died young of preventable illness just a couple generations ago. My own Grandmother had polio.

Maybe it is just not accepted as "normal" anymore. :confused:

[Blackcat31]

We have a terrible diet. When I was coming up my family spent about twenty percent of our income on food. Now we spend twenty percent on health care and about eight percent on food.

Junk food was so expensive in those days that we only got them as a big treat. Every sweet we had was from scratch.

The chemicals used on the food we do have didn't exist when I was growing up. Our bodies are undernourished and overfed. Our chemical exposure is very high.

We have a huge amount of corn in our diet. Nearly everything has corn in it or it is corn fed. The animals we eat aren't supposed to eat corn. They are supposed to eat grass. When you eat animals that have been confined and improperly fed you will be eating sick animals and introducing their sickness into us.

Our kids get a fraction of the exercise we did as kids. We had to go outside and play unless it was dangerously cold. Now we have a nation eating crappy food in front of a screen from the time they can walk till the grave.

It's a viscious cycle. Terrible food and little exercise. It's making us weak.

AMEN NAN!!

Pretty soon we will all be living like the people in the Wall-E movie.... Sad, just sad.

[Cat Herder]

AMEN NAN!!

Pretty soon we will all be living like the people in the Wall-E movie.... Sad, just sad.

Hmm... I thought we'd be more like the movie "Idiocracy".

[Blackcat31]

Hmm... I thought we'd be more like the movie "Idiocracy".

Ok, I stand corrected.

I had never heard of that movie so I googled it..... :: (I am laughing out loud just reading the synopsis!)

[Country Kids]

I also think we over wash our hands wayyyyyyy to much. I just look at the regs and shake my head when I read how much we are to wash our hands. One, its not good for our hands to be washed that much and we wash everything away so our body will never get use to bad germs. Just like you don't need a shower every day or wash your hair everyday. Unless you do a dirty job you could probably go every other day showering.

[dEHmom]

speaking of showering, I saw something one day on tv, that says 10 minutes in the shower, and you absorb ***XX amount of chemicals into your body. Worse then drinking a bottle of lysol or something like that. It was years ago so I don't remember exactly what it was. I know that was off topic, but you said shower, and I thought of that.

Everyday we are absorbing, eating, drinking pollutants. EVERY second we are doing this.

[cheerfuldom]

I agree with nan. Its shocking the amount of preschoolers that never eat meat or vegetables. that do not know where food comes from and are confused with anything that is not individually packaged. my kids eat everything.....we had roast and butternut squash the other night and they loved it! I am so glad I am learning more about nutrition and am able to provide much better than what I received as a child. I didn't know that mashed potatoes did not come from a box when I was a teenager! It never occurred to me that you can make everything from scratch. sad huh?

[mismatchedsocks]

You know, I may wash my hands or sanitize more often then I did growing up, BUT i feel my faimly and I are much more healthy! My own kids have missed 2 days in all the years they have gone to school for being sick and once was food poisioning from restaurant. I remember missing school ALL the time growing up, and my mom didnt even do daycare!
I can only imagine how much sickness would go around if I didnt clean and sanitize.

Knock on wood, we get a bout of sniffles here a few times a year, but my children and myself must be more immune to it. Even the daycare kids who have been here since birth are more immune to it, as they get older.

[spud912]

There have been a lot of studies that show we do wash our hands/sanitize surfaces too much in today's society. People need to be exposed to germs to build immunity and since we don't have the exposure we used to, we are more prone to getting sick when presented with it. Why do you think when we travel to another country and eat the same food as everyone else, we get foodborne illnesses and the locals don't have any reaction?

[2ndFamilyDC]

I have been daycare of 22 years. I have noticed in the last 10 years or so that kids are

getting sick much more often. Constant colds and different virus going around and around.
Moms and dads are getting them too from their kids (luckily I don't get them).

Also I have noticed that kids get constant ear infections and end up needing tubes. Wasn't like that when I had my own kids who are now 23 & 24.

[Country Kids]

My kids actually bring home so much illness from school! One time they became sick because of norwalk virus that was going around from a sewer pipe that had broke. You know who came down with it first-my poor child that wasn't even in school yet then it went like wild fire!!!!!