Some parents wage an all-out war against dirt and germs.
They wipe down the kitchen counter with an antibacterial sponge, scrub the bathtub with an antibacterial cleanser, stock every sink with antibacterial soap and carry antibacterial hand gel in a handbag or glove compartment. But in the March issue of Redbook, senior editor Stephanie Young questions if we can go too far. Some experts attribute the rising rates in certain immune-system diseases to our widening separation from germs and dirt. More and more studies point to lifestyle factors. Presumably this is because their immune systems were exposed to more bugs.