I have succumbed to posting on AIBU!

DDR should be DD.

Endre I totally empathise. My DH also had a compromised (ie non existent) immune system after a transplant 20+ years ago and had several episodes of sepsis which required prompt hospitalisation and the right IV antibiotic.
DDR has Psoriatic Arthritis and did a 5 year drug trial (one of those ending in -“-uximab” ) which left her similarly unprotected. Despite commuting and working in Central London and frequent long haul flights to Hong Kong and China, she stayed remarkably free of even the common cold.
But it does make you nervous.
DH always used to wear gloves when on trains and buses as so many infections are spread by touch. Other than that, common sense and good basic hygiene was all that was needed.
Until he went into hospital for something else and got the almost obligatory UTI and chest infection, but that is another story......

DIL told me yesterday she hates soft play places so rarely takes our four year old grandson to them. He loves them! She says the thought of dirty hands and feet on soft surfaces and the thought of the germs horrifies her. I reckon that's one of the ways children build up an immune system. A bit of dirt didn't do us much harm as kids.

I suffered four serious bouts of pneumonia and was hospitalised each time before I was six years old. I also suffered from regular bouts of bronchitis all through my childhood and teenage years. Eventually I was diagnosed with adult onset asthma, for which I take two inhalers and medication every day of my life, plus steroids and antibiotics whenever I have a bad enough flare up. It now seems probable that I always had asthma but it wasn’t so often diagnosed in the past. However, whilst germs do cause chest infections which cause flare ups, the worse culprits for asthma attacks are diesel fumes, any type of sprays, and of course cigarette smoke. My home is free of aerosols, and cigarette smoke (no one amongst my family/friends smoke) and our cars are set on air recirculate. I still try hard to avoid germs though, for me germs can potentially cause a severe asthma attack and I’m unwilling to risk that, so gels and antibacterial wipes for me when I’m out and about.

Allergies are more common now due to greater pollutants in the environment, nothing to do with being too clean. If people are sloppy with hygiene they do get sickness and diarreah and the whole family can be unwell for a long time.

I've got a compromised immune system and advised to avoid cold, flu and other infectious illness. So is my daughter whose RA is being treated with a biologic which strips her immune system. There are many others including an increasing number of children who have compromised immune systems who are medically advised to avoid people with colds etc.

Lots use anti septic wipes on super market trolleys as the handles have been proven too be major carriers of germs.
People are just not washing their hands with hot water and soap as they did years ago.

Curious dichotomy - we are in many cases fanatical about bacteria and there are anti- bac products for every area of the house but we have at the same time become complacent about our own efforts at hygiene. I also understand overuse of such anti-bacterial products can increase the resistance of “ bugs” to antibiotics.
How often in the Ladies are you aware of people rushing out who have clearly not washed their hands? (Can’t speak for the Gents)
How many people just sneeze into mid air, without even thinking of using a hanky or tissue? Not covering their mouths when they cough? Or rush to the doctor expecting antibiotics for the common cold?
I think we have become too complacent and reliant on antibiotics as the cure-all they were intended to be. There is no denying they are a life saver but, bugs are coming increasingly resistant. One day we will run out of options.
I know of several case of sepsis within the last year, including deaths because the infections failed to respond before the patient became too weak fight them off.
And how many elderly people develop infections after they are hospitalised ?
Yes, bugs do not cause allergies, but bugs do cause bacterial infections and we can no longer rely on antibiotics to sort us out. Anti-virals are similarly no longer the safety net we hoped they would be.
I think the Lifebuoy soap and rigorous hand washing of our childhood was more crucial than we realise.
Time to revisit the hygiene habits of the past. Ask any retired nurse!

We live in a village in south Oxfordshire and in the hot weather, standing on our local hill the landscape is lost in a haze that is caused by air pollution.

I always put antibacterial gel on my hands when I leave a supermarket.

When I was a child , we had a huge crescent shaped puddle about 20ft by 6ft) outside our house, we used to love to paddle in it in our wellies and sail boats etc.
I now realise that the puddle formed because the rainwater drain was blocked, but we survived.

M0nica there was a lot of pollution from coal and coke in the recent past especially in cities and consequently a lot of lung disease too. The smogs were horrible! Sometimes we forget that there was other illness! That said it does seem that more children, not living in areas of obviously high air pollution, have asthma / exzema. I do think indiscriminate use of chemicals in household items, toiltries etc & some blander weaning approaches etc. has contributed in some way to the problem.

MOnica I grew up in Liverpool, and remember how dirty the air could be, especially on a still day. My Mum used to complain about the smuts on her washing! We have different kinds of pollution now, especially, as you say, from vehicles. I don’t argue with you that some people suffered with allergies, years ago. I’m convinced, though, that the combination of being ‘too clean’, and the invisible pollution of all the chemicals in our lives, is having a bad effect on us.

I would add my grandmother suffered from severe asthma, in the end it was the severe damage it had done to her lungs that made her prone to pneumonia and then made it difficult for her to survive that led to her death.

Until she was 50 she lived in Bermondsey at a time of coal fires and regular London smogs. She then moved a few miles further our, but still close to the Thames and, as I spent part of my childhood in the same area, I can remember the thick smogs that permeated the whole house and could last not just, days, but weeks.

I was at school with children with asthma and hay fever. Sometimes just described as 'summer colds'

greengran, I have had allergies most of my life and I am 75. Most of mine are medication and skin related. My mother was not hygiene obsessed.

The hygiene theory of allergies has been shown to be incorrect in recent years. However, allergies have been associated with the rise of air pollution and, in particular diesel particulates in the air. They have also been associated with changes in intestinal biome caused by different food and eating patterns.

When we were children we often bought sweets on our way home from school. It we dropped one on the pavement we'd pick it up, inspect it for visible dirt (little black specks) - if it looked clean we'd eat it. Still alive.
I try to remember to wash hands after shopping due to hearing that trolley handles can be dirty but don't always do this. We need to build up some immunity don't we? Without going too far either way.

It's all very well to say that germs don't cause allergies, but do all the chemicals we use harm our immune systems, causing allergies? When I was young I didn't know one person who had asthma or hay-fever. I know dozens now, included my two grandchildren who have a Mum who runs riot with the cleaning sprays. Babies are surrounded from birth by chemicals in nappies, wipes, feeding bottles etc. as well as cleaning products. I also hate all the air-fresheners, which make me wheezy when I'm in contact with them.
My five children kept me too busy to be constantly wiping and washing, and they have all grown up strong and healthy. I mainly use soap and water for cleaning and at 79 I rarely have even a cold or cough, and take no medication. I wash my hands before meals or handling food, and after dirty jobs, that's all. It works for me!

Well, I live in anti-bacterial wipe free home and have every intention of staying that way.

I think we have been cleverly manipulated into thinking that clean is no longer enough.
They must be laughing all the way to the bank!

M0nica - that is SIL too! Despite his OCD attitude to germs, he drops crumbs everywhere as he never uses a plate to eat bread etc. and never cleans the sink with cif after putting greasy stuff in the dishwasher - (arranged in size order ?) and never sweeps up crumbs or vacuums...... People are certainly strange ?

With you 100% Phoenix

DD used to get cross with a flatmate who was obsessed with constantly wiping every visible surface anywhere with a range of anti-bacterial wipes, but never cleaned the cooker, or moved anything on the worktop to clean under or around it and never ever noticed dirt and crumbs on the floor.

I don't know how I have lived so long! I never thought about supermarket trolley handles
I wash my hands after using the lavatory, before prepping food & when obviously dirty! My house is cleaned once a week and then surfaces only wiped as required. I do use a kitchen cloth but it soaks in a mild bleach solution overnight: my only regular cleaning rule! Any fish/meat contaminated surfaces (boards) go in the dishwasher. Don't always remember to rinse fruit!

I have so often come home from a train journey with a cold or other bug that I am now quite uncharacteristically particular about using gel or wipes on my hands when I have used the loo and when I've touched the doors on my way to and from the loo. In recent years (touch wood) I haven't had any viruses after train journeys.

I agree Sleepygran - if SIL wants to antibac wipe aeroplane seats and tables and every surface in every hotel and take disposable slippers to walk on hotel room carpets which then get thrown away at the end of the stay.....
What is that going to teach my DGS? ?

Yesterday I heard a dad talking to his little girl who was about 4 saying,'you've just touched the handle on the supermarket trolley,so don't put your hands ANYWHERE near you face'
Poor little girl talk about setting her up for phobia or obsessive behaviour!

Was out in the garden recently with a friend who remarked on the fabulous apples on our tree. I immediately picked two and handed one to her, then bit into mine. She was horrified because I hadnt washed the apple, despite the fact it had only been on a tree in the back garden and I had already explained we are entirely organic. It had never crossed my mind to wash fruit from my garden unless its actually gritty, however, I always wash shop and supermarket fruit in case of pesticides or handling by staff with diseases. The only tummy bugs I can ever remember the family having were caught from other people.