Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Are My Filthy Pets Keeping My Kid Healthy?

I wonder if this study I read about in the Los Angeles Times is true?

It seems that way in our house.  Katie has never taken antibiotics.  Ever.  Not that I'm opposed to conventional medicine.  I mean, I'm into the idea of doing as much preventatively as you can, but if your baby has an ear infection, have the doc order your poor kid some drugs, please.  But Katie's never needed anything harsher than a children's acetaminophen, and rarely even that.  The first time she ever had a fever she was over a year old.  I called an after-hours nurses' hotline to ask for advice on what I should do.  The nurse on the other end sounded shocked at my maternal incompetence.  How could I not know what to do with a sick kid?  

My husband rarely gets sick either.  I've known him for over ten years and he's been sick twice.  I, on the other hand, sniffle if the wind blows.  So I've been attributing Katie's good health to Will's good genes, but now I think maybe she gets it from me.  From my lazy housekeeping and my bleeding-heart animal loving.  A couple of days before we came home from the hospital after my C-Section, Will brought home one of the blankets Katie had been wrapped up in so our three dogs and two cats could sniff her before they met her.

We're down to two dogs and one cat now since our furry loved ones are getting old and teaching our child about the life-and-death-cycle.  They're good for that too.

And they make excellent night-time companions.  Right now our dog Sawyer is spooning Katie in bed.  And here I was worried it's been too long since I last gave Sawyer a bath.  Is all that who-knows-what-that-smell-is that Sawyer was rolling around in ecstatically earlier today good for my child's health?      

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