[sausagesandcash]

http://www.thirdage.com/news/asthma-risk-lower-children-living-farms_2-26-2011

Interesting reading.

[plumseverywhere]

Its a very useful article. I remember being at a breakfast meeting with a respiratory medicine consultant, I was a clinical site manager in a london hospital and about to go on maternity leave with my first child. Sat there at 39 weeks pregnant, the Doctor said to me "Promise you will NOT go silly with 'nesting' - if you do your child will get every allergy under the sun!! a bit of dust is good for them..." 
I followed his advice 
none of my 4 have asthma but 3 ended up with eczema if they have cows milk - hence the goats 

[Daisy]

I'm a great believer in a bit of muck, there are far too many anti-bacterial sprays and cleaners about these days, they are not good for us or the enviroment.

When we kept our pony at livery my daughter and I would spend most of the summer holidays there, and most days would not be able to wash out hand before eating our sandwiches as the toilets were vile, this was in the days before the hand cleaner gels we did have baby wipes but didn't always use them, we never had an upset stomach in all the time we did that.