You don't have to be a parent to know that toddlers aren't exactly the GOAT when it comes to personal hygiene and washing hands. Those little fingers go (almost) everywhere as kids explore their surroundings and learn about the big, wide, germ-filled world. And often, those hands go straight into the mouth afterwards.
One man was horrified when they watched a 2-year-old stick their icky hands into a family member's expensive birthday cake. In a bid to discreetly save the cake from a party of germs, the guy moved it out of the toddler's reach. All hell broke loose, as it often does when you take something away from an invested child. But the anger didn't only come from the little human. The person has now been accused of ruining the entire event. And they're left wondering if it's true.
Little kids are still learning the ways of the world, and they depend on their parents to guide them
Image credits: EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
One man took matters into his own hands when a toddler's mom and dad chose not to
Image credits: shurkin_son/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Reno_Potato
Researchers have found fecal matter under the fingernails of young kids
Image credits: Joshua Earle/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
How many different germs would you say are on your hands? 10? 100? 1,000? No. According to Pfizer, our hands carry on average 3,200 different germs belonging to more than 150 species.
And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that only 19% of people in the world wash their hands after using the toilet. The CDC says a single gram of human feces can contain one trillion germs. But we also know that many children love to play on the floor, or outdoors, digging in dirt, petting animals and touching whatever tickles their fancy.
"Older children with increased mobility and motor skills are likely to have increased exposure to fecal sources in the domestic environment, are more likely to spend time on dirt floors or courtyards (rather than an elevated surface such as bed or mat) and also have the ability to pick up contaminated objects and/or feces," notes a 2019 research paper.
The research was carried out in rural Bangladesh, with the aim of finding out just how many germs are present on the hands of young kids, whether their age plays a part and whether visibly dirty fingernails and hands contain more bacteria than those that appear clean. The team found that 43% of the children they inspected had E. coli on their little hands.
Image credits: Cristofer Maximilian/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
According to the CDC, E. coli are "bacteria found in many places like the intestines of people and animals." Most are harmless but some can make you sick and give you diarrhea. While a bout of diarrhea might not always sound serious, the CDC says that diarrheal diseases and pneumonia are the leading causes of child deaths around the world. The CDC website states that about 1.8 million children under the age of 5 die from those illnesses each year.
In Bangladesh, the researchers found that kids who are mobile (crawling, walking or running) are more likely to have fecal matter on their hands than very young babies. Out of the 584 children who took part in the study, almost half had E. coli in their hand rinse samples. 46% of the kids had visible dirt particles under their nails, 31% appeared unclean, and 23% appeared clean. Most of the children's finger pads were clean.
E. coli wasn't all the researchers found crawling under the fingernails of toddlers. "Soil-transmitted helminth ova and larvae have also been detected," they said.
In a totally separate study, or experiment, an American mom, who works as a microbiology lab technician, once found staphylococcus and yeast on her children’s hands. But she wasn't too worried, and here's why.
Getting dirty isn't always bad. In fact, scientists say keeping your child too clean can be detrimental to their health. Exposure to certain bacteria can actually help children develop stronger immune systems. "Several studies suggest that early exposure to dirt may reduce kids' risk of developing allergies and autoimmune conditions," reads the Live Science site.
The American lab tech mom told Today.com that our skin protects us from a lot of the germs and bacteria we encounter. "To have a healthy immune system, you’ve got to be exposed to stuff," said Tasha Sturm. The expert believes that kids getting dirty is not the problem. As long as children are taught to wash their hands before eating.
People wanted more information and the guy was happy to share
"You were the only adult in the room": Many netizens sided with the man
Some people felt the person should have minded their own business
