Does anyone use Antibacterial stuff?

[cicy33]

Had a discussion with my daughter and this came to mind. She went to the restroom, washed her hands, and when she left she opened the door with her hand in a paper towel, kicked it with her foot and threw away the towel. I laughed so hard at her she got kinda mad. She said but mom, the germs! She also carried a bottle of this stuff forever. Now, I know that I am an old fart now (39) but we didnt have the antibacterial stuff when I was younger and we did just fine. But I digress, my point to her was and is this. I said okay, you just carefully kept your hands clean, right? Yes, she says. Okay, I say, when you went to the grocery store this week, did you pick up stuff to look at it? Like cans, boxes of cereal, etc... Yes, of course, she says. So, I say, did it occur to you that maybe the mom that touched that before you had a cold or a kid with the flu or maybe some kid just sneezed all over it? She got this kinda sick look on her face! I told her then you cannot avoid germs, they are everywhere! I went to the doctor not long after that for sinus trouble (by the way, I am rarely ever ill except for sinus trouble) and asked the doctor about this bottle of stuff my daughter carries. He said there is so much hype over this it is not funny and actually it can kill the good bacteria as well as the bad that is on our hands. Apparently we have good as well as bad on our hands which helps us to fight germs. So, Long story short was just wondering if anyone else lives for this stuff?

[pearlieq]

I don't use it. I'm not all that concerned about germs encountered in daily life. I'm young and healthy and don't see any need for it. Plus I really worry about developing resistant bacteria.

Basic commonsense precautions and regular handwashing are enough for me.

[34saving]

I keep some in my diaper bag, but that's about it. I just use it as soap that doesn't need water. (For me, not the baby.) I'm an old fuddy duddy too (32) but if plain old soap was good enough for bacteriology it's good enough for me BTW, there's some research that seems to point to the idea that we're (as a society) getting more and more allergies because our environment is too clean. (Something like our immune systems don't have enough to do, so they attack weird things we'd prefer they not.)

I dont use antibacterial stuff but do the same as your daughter when going to the restroom, I'm 41 yrs old. I've seen so many people not even bother to wash their hands after a restroom visit and it just disgusts me to think I wash my hands and there might be urine or feces on the door handles. It seems the logical thing to do is open the door with a paper towel, if not then why wash your own hands at all?

[cicy33]

I guess my theory on that is that you use your hands to open the door and then touch your skin before you wash your hands. I don't worry to much about it i guess. My reason to wash hands afterwards is you are touching an area or close to it, that is really germy. Or perhaps it is just ingrained in our heads? I am lucky I guess to have an extremely strong immune system

[sakigt]

I use antibacterial soaps for my dishes and my hands. I also have it in my purse sometimes when Im in a foreign country.

But Im not overly obsessive about keeping clean. To an extent, you NEED to be exposed to germs, especially in your childhood, since thats how you build up an immune system. Otherwise, if you keep your kid in a germ-free bubble all their lives, the first "minor" cold they get could turn into a big deal.

[tinapbeana]

you have to be exposed to 'germs' throughout your life to be able to build up an immune system. otherwise, you have this weak little immune system that falls for everything.

there have been studies that show kids raised in homes without pets are more likely to have asthma and allergies. i think there are some that show the same thing for hepa filtered air but i dunno for sure.

it reminds me of something i saw on 'this old house' the other week. the house they were working in had been built so 'snug and tight' that they had to install a clean air handler to specifically bring fresh air in from outside otherwise the air in the house would get stale and musty. not too long ago this wouldn't have been an issue... BTW, makes me wonder how much one of those costs and what it costs to run, and did this family just eat up their energy effeciency savings?

[sparklylikeaholiday]

As a healthcare worker, I am very against antibacterial items. They promote the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

They kill 99% of the bacteria... the 1% remaining of those are the strongest... So you're left with strong bacteria, reproducing strong bacteria. After a while... antibiotics and antibacterial products will be pretty much useless.

Also... to correct a common myth about antibacterial products. They only kill bacteria. They do not kill viruses. So they will not keep you from getting a cold. Or the flu. Or the stomach virus, et. al.

It really is just better to wash with plain soap and water. Afterall, if you scrub and rinse well enough to wash them down the drain, then it won't matter if you kill them or not since they aren't on your hands anyway, right? :-)

I only use them if they are the only thing around.

[tinapbeana]

OT: BTW, sparkly, i LOVE your signature!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!

my physics teacher in HS had a joke "Did you hear about the dyslexic insomniac atheist who stayed up late at night wondering if there was a Dog?"

heheheh

[PRICEPLUS]

Sparkly is 100% correct about the anti-bacterial products. Just use plain soap and water and common sense!

[PrincessPerky]

We carry it in the car, for garbage runs (we take it to the recycle center)..just can't use my hands like normal after taking out garbage..eww..sorry.

I think in some ways I am anal about hand washing, but I do touch things at the grocery store without to much stumach turning, and I even let my kid sit in the cart with no fancy protector!

Though the oddest thing, my youngest is my third, which means he gets to eat more off the floor, put dirt in his mouth earlier, chews on stuff more and has hand me down toys, that he shares more (with kids in and out of the house), got his toys shaken off rather than washed, has a house with 4 years of dust (I don't dust..) instead of the well none my oldest had (I dusted back before I had kids at least once)..and yet, he is the one with allergies......

[jodi]

I hate the stuff. I use it only in dire situations! I am pretty fanatical about hand-washing, especially in a house with 2 toddlers. Therefore, since I am not so fanatical about lotioning, my hands are usually chapped and cracked meaning that hand sanitizer hurts a LOT if I do use it.
I am in agreement with the idea that too much use of anti-bacterial stuff can be harmful. Soap and water is good enough for us.

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by jodi

I hate the stuff. I use it only in dire situations! I am pretty fanatical about hand-washing, especially in a house with 2 toddlers. Therefore, since I am not so fanatical about lotioning, my hands are usually chapped and cracked meaning that hand sanitizer hurts a LOT if I do use it.
I am in agreement with the idea that too much use of anti-bacterial stuff can be harmful. Soap and water is good enough for us.

jodi, try using homemade soap or get some hand-crafted soap from a health food store. reason being: the glycerin is left in soap made by hand as opposed to being extracted and sold. glycerin is a humectant and will draw moisture from the air and keep it close to your skin, thereby helping to reduce the chapping (when the water on your hands evaporates off and there are no natural skin oils left after the washing).

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by sparklylikeaholiday

As a healthcare worker, I am very against antibacterial items. They promote the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

They kill 99% of the bacteria... the 1% remaining of those are the strongest... So you're left with strong bacteria, reproducing strong bacteria. After a while... antibiotics and antibacterial products will be pretty much useless.

Also... to correct a common myth about antibacterial products. They only kill bacteria. They do not kill viruses. So they will not keep you from getting a cold. Or the flu. Or the stomach virus, et. al.

It really is just better to wash with plain soap and water.

Another healthcare worker here - a physician - and I agree 100% with this post. Putting antibacterial agents into hand lotions, dish detergents, kids toys, etc. is a bad idea and we will be paying for it for years to come.

[DivaJen]

I do the paper towel thing with public restroom doors, too, as does my daughter now. It's too gross to think about that handle.

Otherwise, we use soap and water when we wash our hands.

[DivaJen]

Originally Posted by sparklylikeaholiday

As a healthcare worker, I am very against antibacterial items. They promote the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

They kill 99% of the bacteria... the 1% remaining of those are the strongest... So you're left with strong bacteria, reproducing strong bacteria. After a while... antibiotics and antibacterial products will be pretty much useless.

I've wondered about this before. Is the 99% the weakest (1% are stronger and therefore remain), or is it a numbers game, where you're not going to be able to hit every last bacterium on your hands, and thus the 99% claim (assuming you'll miss one of every 100 on your hands)? I've thought about this when I hear Listerine commercials.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I like the tidiness of sink-side liquid pump soaps but also do not like the anti-bacterial formulae. A couple years ago, Target had refill bottles of plain liquid soaps, so I stocked up on it. My mother fills her pumps with dish detergent, the kind without anti-bacterial ingredients. Personally I find that too harsh for my hands. By the way, even common soap does kill many germs, and does not merely help to wash them away.

The portable bottles of hand sanitizer do not much bother me, though they do not feel like a good alternative to soap and water washing. They usually just kill germs with isopropyl alcohol. I just don't care for the initially slimy, supposedly moisturizing film they leave behind. If there is something on my hands that I don't want to be there, I'd rather not seal it in under a film.

[neatdesign]

I keep a little bottle of anti-bacterial gel on my desk at work, which I use but not very often. I mostly like the way that it smells and yet it doesn't make my hands feel greasy (like scented lotions do). Back in the day when I was a globetrotter, I rarely went anywhere without it because I would often find myself in places (particularly South Africa and Costa Rica) where there was no soap provided in the restrooms.

To the OP: Do you think your daughter might have some germophobic tendencies? (Edited to add: Ha, I just reread that I realized how funny that must sound!) Or perhaps obsessive-compulsiveness? That might explain why she is so concerned about germs. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but if it gets out of hand then it could end up controlling her every move...

~ Jenney

[kv968]

I work in research and we use an anti-microbial soap. We handle samples and compounds that, to be honest, sometimes we don't really know what they are or their effects. Although we wear gloves and other proper protection, on a normal day I can wash my hands upwards of 20-30 times/day. I'm not a "germophobe" by any means, it's just protocol and becomes a necessary habit. I don't know how well the soap itself works but I figure with that much handwashing I should be going through an extra layer of epidermis a day

[cicy33]

Originally Posted by neatdesign

To the OP: Do you think your daughter might have some germophobic tendencies? (Edited to add: Ha, I just reread that I realized how funny that must sound!) Or perhaps obsessive-compulsiveness? That might explain why she is so concerned about germs. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but if it gets out of hand then it could end up controlling her every move...

~ Jenney

I actually have no idea where she got that. She had no problem playing the mud as a child and climbing trees and everything tomboys do. She has started getting past it now. thank goodness. I have found the replies interesting though and am following them.