Page 1 of BBC News - Under-fives `should shun animals`

Parents should not allow under-fives to touch animals at petting farms, a microbiologist has said amid E.coli fears involving four sites.

FFS! We`re going towind up having to seal our little ones in spacesuits for the first five years of life if we follow all the crazed paranoid advice handed out by so-called experts.

This is just the latest in the ongoing terror campaign waged by scientists and the media to keep the ill-informed general public in a constant state of fear.

Children need to be exposed to risks to develop their own immunities and otherwise set them up for life in this dirty, crazy world. To use one of those phrases I never believed would come out of my mouth (or rather fingers), when I was a kid, we didn`t worry about getting mucky. A layer of mud was a badge of honour, and everything was sorted out with a hot bath before bedtime.

Modern society is so obsessed with biocidal cleanliness and protecting children against the perceived wickedness of the world that it`s in danger of breeding generations of immunological weaklings with scant social skills.

Remember the end of HG Wells` War of the Worlds - where the Martians were defeated by the lowliest life form on the planet in the form of the common cold? We`re turning into the Martians.

J Mark Oates

Quite agree, total boll*cks.

I sometimes wonder how those more senior of us on here ever survived childhood given the restrictions and precautions now placed on children.
Strange contrast though that a society that over controls and coddles the very young also allows teens to run riot with little penalty or consequence to whatever trouble they cause.

Snaps

Couldn`t agree more. They once told us not to give any baby under 18 months or 2 years any nuts in case they had an allergic reaction.

A few years later, they reluctantly admitted that this action had caused an increase in allergic reactions to nuts in toddlers over that age. Der! >:(

There`s no way I would ever stop taking children to see animals at petting farms. I think they are a superb opportunity for them to get up close to a large variety of non-domestic animals.

We are indeed in danger of alienating our children from our own world.

This item was edited on Saturday, 19th September 2009, 16:58

absolute rubbish... i positively encourage my littel one to get outside an play... nothing healthier than a bit of dirt! Build the immune system up, so long as they use common sense and wash hands... and dont copy the cat licking its @r$e!!!



`i am going to live forever or die trying`

I grew up with a cattle market a few streets away, Mondays & Fridays (livestock), Tuesdays (horses), Wednesday (cars). I used to watch the auctions, go running through the pens, loved it.

Totally agree that overprotective measures, hampers your immunity to the various nasties that live out there.



I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

Decades into the new era of miniaturisation, you can still encounter rastafarians & other technologically backward youths parading around with a full size boombox on their shoulder.


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Im disappointed in you all :( ...................

none of you mentioned letting your little ones eat worms - Im sure all of us did at some point when we were toddling round the garden :D

Juls

This item was edited on Saturday, 19th September 2009, 21:47

Quote:
Im sure all of us did at some point when we were toddling round the garden

Nope, just you :)

Snaps

Quote:
none of you mentioned letting your little ones eat worms - Im sure all of us did at some point when we were toddling round the garden

My brother and his friend once cut a beetle in half and ate half each, does that count?

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer



synth.myreviewer.com

Quote:
My brother and his friend once cut a beetle in half and ate half each, does that count?
They`re not called Anthony and Declan are they?
Snaps

I never ate any wildlife but I did go out and consume some burnt toast that my mum had put out for the birds - didn`t do me any harm.

I agree that young children need to be exposed to germs otherwise they`ll not develop a fully functional immune system. Hide the Dettol and let kids touch what they want.

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