I have succumbed to posting on AIBU!

That would have been a problem with the children’s immune system for both kids to have died, nothing to do with the fact that the mother liked to clean

You have my sympathies Fennel! Bleach mixed with other products can be lethal, and even explosive!

What an awful story B9.
My husband is, or was , a cleaning fanatic. One day he made some kind of mixture of bleach etc to mop the kitchen floor.
He had terrible breathing problems and ended up in hospital overnight.
He's still a bit OCD, but more cautious now.

When my children were young we lived in the same street as a couple with two boys, one just under 4 and one coming up for two years old. The wife was obsessed with germs, cleaning everything with bleach.

Coming back from shopping I saw a crowd of neighbours outside the house and was asked to help. I found the eldest upstairs collapsed and blue, and despite working on him with a neighbour it was obvious he had gone. Ambulance came and took him away, we took his mother to hospital and sat with her while they told her he had died. Dreadful day.

Two months later I saw the mum being shepherded out of the house in tears and thought at last she had broken (she had seemed almost unaffected afterwards). Then I saw the ambulance. Their second son was rushed to hospital where he also died. Post mortems revealed a bug which would not normally have killed a child, but they had no resistance.

By the way a great topic Phoenix ?

I find it hard to believe now , but if we were out with Mum & fell over, got a bit dirty etc, she would moisten her hanky ( yes I do really mean spit !) and clean the injured or mucky area. We would probably be arrested now if we did this?

I agree. I was brought up in a home where dirt wasn't much bothered about - my Mum never even insisted we washed our hands before eating and didn't supervise whether we washed our hands after going to the toilet either. I hardly ever suffered a serious illness as a child.

With my own children I did try to get them to wash their hands after using the loo and before eating, but I wasn't strict about the latter. Like me, they were seldom ill with anything serious as children. Colds, of course, but when half the school seemed to go down with stomach bugs, my three didn't catch them. I had a friend who bleached and cleaned often, and whose children caught every stomach bug that went around.

I'm happy to see that my daughter in law isn't obsessed with cleanliness either - my granddaughter often gets quite mucky, playing, and nobody stresses about her dirty hands going in her mouth. She isn't yet two and, of course, really hates being cleaned up after meals, never mind trying to wash her hands before she eats! A quick wipe is all you can manage.

Just to add into the mix, that I (who started this thread) have been diagnosed with COPD, so could be deemed to be particularly vulnerable to various viruses etc, but still don't feel the need to use antibacterial wipes on the handles of supermarket trolleys!

Wash your hands thoroughly before eating, and before preparing food, use separate boards for certain food items, and you should be fine!

I do however worry about situations such as Beau described, where parents are going OTT, to the extent of unrealistically trying to keep their child germ free.

I don't use any antibacterial products. I make my own kitchen spray from white vinegar and water, with a bit of washing up liquid. So much cheaper and just as effective. So many of the soaps and sprays in places irritate my skin even after a single use.

GreenGran78 You have just reminded me - I hardly ever get asthma but get it really badly from - guess - cleaning sprays! That is, the ones used for "polishing" wood, and the others which are not in compressed cans, and are used for cleaning kitchens!

MawBroon Again I totally agree! (I was in complete agreement on the SIL in MIL's bedrooms thread).

I have noticed how cursory people's hand-washing is. After working in a hospital I have always washed my hands the hospital way. In primary school we were given "lessons" on hand-washing! I think there was a flu epidemic. Also, I think, using bar-soap makes one rub one's hands much more than just taking a bit of squirty soap. I adore Wright's Coal Tar! I could smell it all day!

Regarding Loo doors, I try to keep a bit of paper hand-towel and open the door with this. If people look at you as if you are mad don't worry! You probably will never see them again!

I read recently that the area around your aeroplane seat is very dirty as there is too little time for the crew to clean between flights. Always wipe your tray, never put food on it. Wipe the window area if you are going to lean on it. Wear shoes, never go bare foot. Do not have ice cubes or tea or coffee (but I have forgotten why!) just drink bottled water. Don't use the blanket. However, I have done several of these a few times and survived! It was in a Reader's Digest online which they sent me on email a while back. Apparently the flight crew say these things and a lot more!

Momof3 Much more asthma. I think it's the crop spraying and pollution from exhaust fumes.

MamaCaz I'm afraid you have to call the Council Pest people or a Private firm. I learned this when I had one in the garden and was contemplating my own cunning plan for removing it. Apparently we are not allowed to do it ourselves, I have a feeling I was told they are protected! They do pollinate plants actually. Good luck!

I hasten to add I only rarely bite them now but I do suck finger tips - terrible habit I know.

My husband tells me off for sucking and biting my nails. He said thats the worse thing for germs??

What disease do children suffer from now that your generation didn’t?

That dr has never been in a primary school surrounded by children, the primary school environment is certainly not sterile

Does your DIL take her child out doors to play.

I very rarely took my kids to soft play areas but they went out doors in parks and our local country park to play and socialised with lots of friends at each other’s houses.

Actually I’m currently watching a science programme on BBC4 where they are looking at rubbish degradation. They have just dug up rubbish from 30years at least and it’s all still completely intact to the point you can read the newspaper (it’s was the TV guide with Hidehi with Sue Pollard). We have all been responsible for polluting the earth going back decades.

The only difference decades ago rubbish went to land fill and that was it out of sight out of mind

Somebody mentioned Dettol (sorry, read it before and now can't find it as my brain wants to go to sleep), which reminds me of a bacteriology experiment where we compared what grew after swabbing our hands before and after washing with Dettol at the recommended dilution. The Dettol made absolutely no difference.

Why does nobody build toilets with doors which open outwards? There must be buildings with enough room for that, for example where the door would open against a corridor wall. Then you would just push it open and not have to think about touching a dirty handle after washing your hands.

Erm, Grandmother1234 I think you may have posted on the wrong thread!

Funnygran IMO, you are right, your DIL is wrong!

However will she cope when her DS goes to school? does he already go to nursery/playgroup? pretty sure they are not germ free zones!

Do you all remember the phrase "we can't wrap them up in cotton wool"?

Perhaps it should be brought back as "we can't cover them head to foot in antibacterial wipes, put them in a child version of those outfits worn at scenes of crimes and expect them to have a normal, happy childhood"!

I need a bit of advise I have a wasps nest in the eaves of my house and on coming home from holiday there were 30 wasps in the house mainly kitchen and bathroom ten were dead and the others weak is it to late to get in touch with a wasp controller because of the month can any one tell me

I am more worried about the potential harm from frequent exposure to anti-bacterial products than I am about the average germ.
That said, I do hate having to touch a germ-ridden door handle to let myself out of public toilets after washing my hands!

phoenix Good discussion! I agree! We were told we needed "a little peck of dirt" . I also agree about dogs, people are weird about them. You are more likely to catch germs from humans.

Something that always surprises me though, is on programmes such as "MasterChef" how often the Chefs touch the food. They touch it all the time, carefully placing it on the plate to make it look beautiful.

On Celebrity Masterchef, however, I could not help noticing that John Partridge, who won, often rubbed his hand over his mouth, quite obviously pulling down his lips and so apparently getting his hand wet, and then went back to touching the food he was placing on the plate. It put me off posh food.

Our community health nurse says it is better to wash hands than to use anti bac gel in terms of cleanliness alone.

I travel on public transport a lot but never think twice about infection unless I am sitting in the close vicinity of a coughing/spluttering person!