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Health & Fitness

The Breeders: The Sandbox. The Point of No Return

It's good for their immune systems, right?

 

Like all soon-to-be moms I spent the last few weeks of my pregnancy obsessing over the cleanliness of everything that would touch my baby and my baby could possibly at some point in the future possibly touch.

If there was an organic option, that is what he had to have. Every piece of fabric was washed in detergent free of dyes and perfumes. Everything was vacuumed and dusted, and vacuumed and dusted again. I followed the cat around with a lint roller.

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For the first few weeks and months the standards remained the same — due in part to the fact that we had lots of help, and also due to the fact that the only messes the kid made were easily contained to his diaper or wiped up with a spit-up rag. 

But, as our sleep deprivation has compounded and we have introduced solid foods, those standards have been lowered. It seems a bit counterintuitive. As the kid has become more mobile and more able to access messes, we've become more laissez faire about his ability to roll around on carpet that hasn't been vacuumed in a week.

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A trip to the park last weekend made me realize that this relaxing of standards isn't just laziness, but may be necessary to his development. 

We'd taken him to the park before, but we came armed with diaper wipes. Not to use on his bottom, but anything his (clothed) bottom — and hands, and mouth —might touch. It is cold and flu season after all, so the swings got a good wipe-down.

But, this time we crossed a new threshold in what will be a life-long struggle of letting the kid grow up. We put him in the sand box. You cannot diaper-wipe a sandbox.

Of course he loved it. 

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