When Hygiene Matters and When It Doesn't
Targeted hygiene requires intuition on when you are most likely to encounter pathogens.
When hygiene matters most
- Contact with an infected individual
- Touching surfaces that are frequently touched by others
- Food handling
- Eating with fingers
- Using the toilet
- Changing a baby's diaper
- Handling and disposing of garbage
- Handling clothing, towels, and bed linen
- Contact with domestic animals
These are the high-risk moments for pathogen exposure. Things not listed can be considered low-risk.
To prevent getting sick from high-risk moments:
- Wash hands
- Wear a mask
- Wear gloves
- Properly sanitize high-risk surfaces
Hygiene practices that are not helpful
Floors and other general surfaces should not be routinely disinfected. These are low-risk surfaces that provide microbial exposure, which benefits immune regulation. In line with targeted hygiene, only disinfect when you think that pathogen risk is high, such as having spilled garbage on the floor.67
Additionally, these surfaces are in constant contact with children, and exposure to cleaning products can adversely affect your child's health.
Cleaning products: a double-edged sword
Cleaning products effectively eliminate pathogens. However, they do more harm than good when used on low-risk surfaces.
Cleaning products increase allergy risk by:
- Being highly toxic, depending on the ingredients68
- Disrupting healthy and diverse microbial populations
- Increasing barrier permeability(46, 69)
- Acting as pro-allergic adjuvants67
Solutions to this problem:
- Reserve the use of cleaning products for high-risk surfaces
- Do not allow a child to come into direct contact with cleaning agents (skin, inhaled, etc.)
- Use non-toxic cleaning products | Non-Toxic Product Options