preventing the spread of infection, explains Dr Sally Bloomfield.
The extent to which children should be protected from infectious illness has been much debated. In the past 30 years, there has been an epidemic of chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) in the industrialised world. For young children, the main concern is asthma, hay fever, food and other allergies, but the problem extends to a broad range of diseases including Type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. It may also extend to cognitive disorders such as depression and autism.
The possible link between reduced exposure to 'infection' and an increase in allergic diseases was proposed in the 1990s. The 'hygiene hypothesis' fuelled the idea that we have become too clean for our own good; and, unfortunately, this idea persists, despite substantial revision of the hypothesis to the extent that using the term 'hygiene' to describe it is a misnomer.
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