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Study Shows Thumb-Sucking and Nail-Biting Can Be Good For Kids
HughPickens.com writes: Perri Klass M.D. writes in the NYT that according to a new study of children aged 5 to 11, thumb-suckers and nail-biters were less likely to have positive allergic skin tests later in life. In the study, parents were asked about their children's nail-biting and thumb-sucking habits when the children were 5, 7, 9 and 11 years old. skin testing for allergic sensitization to a range of common allergens including dust mites, grass, cats, dogs, horses and common molds was done when the children were 13 years old, and then later when they were 32. The study found that children who frequently sucked a thumb or bit their nails were significantly less likely to have positive allergic skin tests both at 13 and again at 32. Children with both habits were even less likely to have a positive skin test than those with only one of the habits. The question of such a connection arose because of the so-called hygiene hypothesis, an idea originally formulated in 1989, that there may be a link between atopic disease -- the revved-up action of the immune system responsible for eczema, asthma and allergy -- and a lack of exposure to various microbes early in life. Some exposure to germs, the argument goes, may help program a child's immune system to fight disease, rather than develop allergies. "The hygiene hypothesis is interesting because it suggests that lifestyle factors may be responsible for the rise in allergic diseases in recent decades," says Robert J. Hancox. "Obviously hygiene has very many benefits, but perhaps this is a downside. The hygiene hypothesis is still unproven and controversial, but this is another piece of evidence that it could be true." Although the results do not suggest that kids should take up these habits, the findings do suggest the habits help protect against allergies that persist into adulthood.
I'm asking for a friend.
NYT spends as many inches on name dropping the researchers as it does explaining the research. The NHS has released an article that's a little better IMO.
tl;dr Research paper shows correlation between nail biting in childhood and incidence of allergies in later life, does not elaborate on causal relationship. Results hailed as "common sense" by the usual crowd.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
Sucking thumbs won't make you immune to allergies.. but it does make it quite likely you'll need dental work, the upper teeth get pushed out, the lower teeth pushed back, and if done regularly can result in requiring a rickanator to correct the jaw position and speech pathology to correct speech. If at all possible, get a pile of similar soothers, rotate them to dissuade a preference, and wean off as the kid gets around 4. No problems then, probably get just as much dirt in their mouth as kids will be dropping them all the time anyway.
!Equality through palindromes semordnilap hguorht ytilauqE!
However a lot of natural behaviors have been discouraged by changing cultural norms.
While people are freaking out about GMO and other devious actions by big agro food for all these allergies, Where the true cause may just be our new bubble hyper clean life style, where kids are seen as ultra fragile and in some areas laws will punish parents who raise their kids in a manner where they are exposed to such dirty behaviors.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The hygiene hypothesis is still unproven and controversial
That's not quite correct; "unproven" is a confusing word here. It's more of an "it depends" situation, rather than a "true/false" situation.
The hygiene hypothesis can be sort-of demonstrated in some situations (e.g. reduced allergic response to peanuts in mice via oral sensitisation with very low amounts of CpG-coated peanut extract), and rejected in others (e.g. the parasitic worm H. polygyrus suppresses the adaptive immune response).
Ask me about repetitive DNA