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Fewer Allergies: A Possible Upside of Thumb Sucking and Nail Biting
- Raphmedia 10y agoAnd don't forget snot eating!
- spartanatreyu 10y agoGlad I was eating porridge for that one haha
- ridgeguy 10y agoYou beat me to it! Nasal secretions should be good sources of airborne pathogens. Different pathogen profile from fingernails, etc. Wider challenges for a developing immune system.
- Sephiroth87 10y agoMhm, my immune system might not have gotten the memo then...
- atis 10y agoMust have dirty fingers for this to work though.
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoSome folks just have allergies - genetic predisposition, perhaps. It isn't that allergies were unknown before the 'modern' world, simply less common than they are now.
- theprotocol 10y agoYeah, I used to be gross when I was younger (biting my nails, nibbling on pens...), and it didn't prevent me from developing some of the worst allergies imaginable. I can't even eat 90% of food types lest I enter a pseudo-drunken allergic state of stupor. Certain kinds of cigarette vapors make my ears and throat constrict in a matter of seconds.
- howlingfantods 10y agoAnecdotally, I grew up in the Chinese countryside, spelunking through mud at the local pond to catch frogs for dinner and bathing maybe twice a week. It was only when I moved to the US, land of hand sanitizers and abundant soap, that I suddenly developed a mild allergy to pollen.
- chestervonwinch 10y agoAnecdotally, I grew up in the land of hand sanitizers and abundant soap, playing in mud, weeding the garden, and catching bugs. I had allergy shots until my teens, and I often still feel like I have a permanent minor cold, which gets better or worse, depending on what's blooming. Moving from Michigan to north Florida seems to have made it worse.
- TylerE 10y agoSimilar story here - Home is in eastern NC, terrible allergy area, tons of pine trees and moisture) - but mostly places I visit I feel better, and then feel substantially worse when I return home.
- brewdad 10y agoSame as you, I grew up in MI. Moved to Phoenix and my allergies cleared up. About 5 years later, I had seasonal allergies again and they seemed to be worse than ever.
- edwhitesell 10y agoI grew up playing outside all hours of the day/night, every season in Michigan. Rarely hand washing before eating and that kind of stuff. I never had issues with allergies. I've lived in Boston and Seattle, no issues. Now I live in Dallas (again) and allergy season is not good. Pretty much a guaranteed sinus infection twice a year.
- dflock 10y agoDifferent pollen, which your immune system had never seen before.
- archon810 10y agoMy 3.5-year-old son sucks his thumb. His thumb looks weird, it's a bit more flat, but that's not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is his sucking has pushed his front tooth on that side out. It now looks crooked, and he's making it worse every day. That's the danger of thumb sucking IMO.
- hammock 10y agoLuckily all his teeth will eventually fall out
- mankyd 10y agoInterestingly, the position of the baby teeth greatly affect the adult teeth. As it was described to me, the baby teeth are essentially placeholders or spacers that reserve room for the adult teeth. If they are out of alignment or move to funny positions, your adult teeth end up in odd places.
- dpflan 10y agoThe article focuses on this issue when thumb-sucking begins to affect secondary teeth, as hammock and the article point out it becomes an issue when the behavior is retained with secondary teeth. 3.5 years seems like he's reaching the threshold for when to ween. "There can be downsides to thumb sucking, as it can lead to problems from pushing secondary teeth as they come in. But those don’t come in until later, when children are in elementary school. Most children stop sucking their thumb by themselves before they get to elementary school. The American Dental Association recommends that parents start encouraging their children to stop sucking their thumb after age 4 — but even then, they advocate a gentle, positive approach. Many children suck to relieve anxiety, and making them anxious about sucking can backfire! Instead, praise children for not doing it — and help them find other ways of soothing themselves. Putting a Band-Aid on the thumb can help them remember; at night, using a sock or something similar can help with the child who sucks their thumb without realizing it. But again, this is only an issue for older children."
- scoot 10y ago
- dpflan 10y agoI wonder what exposure is necessary to boost the immune system's handling of specific allergens. Are there immune-boosting workshops where children are exposed to allergens of all kinds (perhaps gradually increasing the exposure)? What is the economic impact of having a strong immune system vs weak immune system?
- throwanem 10y ago> Are there immune-boosting workshops where children are exposed to allergens of all kinds (perhaps gradually increasing the exposure)? Yes. They're called "the outside world", and hard as this is to believe, you can sometimes even find your child a spot in one free of charge!
- dpflan 10y agoHeh, this is true, definitely the cheapest and probably the most fun for the children. But, what about a process that takes less time and can introduce allergens from around the world?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- throwanem 10y agoWell, of course, may a merciful God forfend we allow children to waste time. Gotta make sure Junior's up to the admission process for a top-tier pre-K, after all.
- a_c_s 10y agoThis is a bit pedantic, but allergies are the result of an overactive immune system, not a weak one. The immune system is treating harmless particles (pollen, dander, etc.) as dangerous pathogens that need to be dealt with harshly (sneezing, runny noses, etc.)
- dpflan 10y ago
- Ftuuky 10y agoI recently discovered I'm allergic to weed. No nail biting prepared me for this.
- Zhenya 10y agoDo your eyes get red and your mouth very dry? Try eating something tasty.
- Ftuuky 10y agoNope, both hash and weed makes me high and it's all cool and whatnot but after smoking weed my nose gets blocked for hours, can't breathe properly. I don't understand why weed does that and hash doesn't but it's what it is. Maybe it's the fertilizers used for growing weed (I was buying the high end stuff, hydroponic, etc) while hash is grown in Morocco without adding any fancy stuff but I'm not sure. I've decided to not smoke anything at all.
- Raphmedia 10y agoAll jokes aside, there is pollen on it and it can trigger an allergic reaction for people.
- jobu 10y agoThis fits with the “hygiene hypothesis,” which says that when children are exposed to germs early in life, their immune system gets trained to attack germs, rather than attacking itself as we see in allergies, asthma, and eczema It would be interesting to see an allergy study on kids raised in their own home vs those that grew up in a group childcare setting. Speaking from experience as a parent, those places are like petri dishes for vile diseases. It seems like that would be a much more thorough exposure to disease than playing in the dirt and sucking a thumb.
- ivankirigin 10y agoProbably a lot more hand sanitizer and other precautions that aren't in your house too.
- eitally 10y agoYou end up with highly contagious pathogens that you'd never find in your home (Hand, Foot & Mouth, for example) and higher incidence of things like conjunctivitis, but since everyone in licensed group care facilities is vaccinated against the real baddies, that stuff is no more frequent. What parents bank on is that the persistent coughs & colds that are so common will eventually lead to stronger immune systems. As a parent of 2 elementary school kids who both did group daycare/preschool, I have 0 useful data to share. My kids got sick regularly in preschool, don't get sick as often in elementary school, but when one gets sick (with a viral infection) generally everyone else in the family still gets sick, too.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoI'd also be curious about children who grow up in rural, suburban and urban areas. I live in New York, I often forget to wash my hands when I come home from riding the subway and start hugging my kid one of whose favorite games is "chew on dad". I'm trying to balance out the fear of her catching some exotic imported disease with the hope that her immune system is getting used to handling a variety of invaders.
- tominous 10y agoThe type of germs that kids share with each other are different to what you can pick up from the dirt. I suspect (though I would love to find evidence) that upper respiratory infections are far more common today than they were in the past. We now have dense cities, global travel, compulsory schooling, and a large global population for colds and flus to diversify in. On the other hand we have less exposure to the bacteria and parasites that live in the dirt and on animals. They trigger (and modulate) a different part of the immune system associated with allergies.
- zuminator 10y agoI've heard that mobile phones are filthier than toilet seats, and plenty of young children have them these days. I've seen babies too young to walk or talk given electronic tablets to distract themselves with. I wonder if the trend toward youngsters interacting with electronic devices that are rarely if ever kept sanitary will help keep allergies at bay?
- visarga 10y ago> electronic devices that are rarely if ever kept sanitary I think electronics can be coated with an antibacterial film to prevent infections.