Research shows that sucking on your child's dirty pacifier and giving it back to them may be a good thing. Yuck! Common scenario that I have witnessed time and time again: child with pacifier drops pacifier usually onto dirty floor in a store or other public place, child's parent picks up the pacifier, sticks it in his or her mouth to "clean" it then gives it back to child. My reaction is always a mild, "I may have just puked inside my mouth a little." I just think it's gross to clean something that fell on the floor with your mouth and also, maybe you shouldn't be passing your germs to your kid.
Turns out, I may just be an over-clean freak.
Read more on ¿Qué más?: If your son uses a pacifier, you have to read this!
A small study published in Pediatrics found that the babies of parents whose parents had sucked on their pacifier to cleanse them were significantly less likely to get eczema or asthma.
Bill Hesselmar of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden says: "Eczema is the best disease to choose [as a marker] if you want to see if a young child is becoming allergic." The theory is that when parents clean a child's pacifier by sucking on it, they transfer some of the harmless bacteria to their child. This bacteria stimulates the child's immune system and teaches it how to do its job.
The study supports the idea that nowadays lots of kids are growing up too clean. They are not being exposed to as many germs as in the past, which might be causing the immune system to react to things it should ignore (like peanuts and berries).
My apologies to all the parents I judged for sticking filthy pacifiers in their mouth and then giving them to their child. This whole time I thought you were being totally gross and it turns out you were just helping to develop your child's immune system. I still think it's gross to stick dirty things in your mouth, though.
Image via Thinkstock
