As a father of two children, I know how hard it can be to find a good restaurant that has high chairs readily available and baby changing facilities in the toilets. But, after I've scouted around for restaurants that fit my practical needs as a parent, should I then need to look through the microscope at what kind of conditions I'm putting my young baby and toddler onto?
Well I'm sure you've guessed from the title that answer is probably yes. I noticed this spring that my children were suffering more frequent and acute stomach upsets, and it coincided with short breaks we'd had, after a long winter of no down-time. It was after we returned home that it occurred to me that actually we never tend to eat out with the children, let alone for two or three meals of the day like we do on our summer break. Of course, for the most part, we fed them food we'd brought with us to the cafes and restaurants - the same as at home - but that didn't prevent the stomach upsets. I immediately concluded it must be the different water, before realising trips to see family in different parts of the country contradicted that theory. So looking for another explanation I thought I'd ask my friends for their opinion and do some internet research. It was while undertaking the latter, that I grew to realise just how unhygienic an environment the high-chairs I was putting my children in really were. If you believe the research I'd literally have been better off feeding my baby off toilet seats, and changing them on the floor. On average high chairs, for example, have 15x the amount of bacteria per sqm than the average toilet seat in the same establishment, with some statistics going much higher (100x and beyond). I found myself thinking, do these places not use the same sort of disinfectants as I do at home? You often see waitresses giving high-chairs a wipe over before you eat, so why are they so contaminated? The answer is beyond the scope of this article, but in short I realised standard disinfectants stop working after they've dried, which is about a minute, after this period bacteria can grow back again just as easily, and this is precipitated by 'missing a spot' when wiping up.
Chair Floor Protectors
So rationally I would assume a good proportion of these pathogens and bacteria will be from food matter that - probably - are fairly harmless. I was wrong again, extremely potent and dangerous germs such as E-coli, Staph. Aureus and Enterococcus Faecalis and more, were present. The symptoms? 'Upset stomachs and serious illness', and being particularly dangerous to '...babies, young children and the elderly'. In the interests of balance (and not being alarmist) it's worth noting that serious illness and death as a result of infection from high-chairs is not mentioned in any published studies I've read, the levels of contamination appear to be enough for bad stomach upsets only, but this is still undesirable from my point of view.
All studies did stress however, that chairs can look spotless and actually be the most contaminated. It shows the ineffectiveness of current cleaning practices and attitudes, the notion that 'if it looks clean, it is clean' still prevails despite all the advancements we've made after proving what we call 'germ theory' in the early 19th century.
The answer appeared to be simple: stay at home when feeding my kids. I was wrong again! A study from 2007 showed that 60% of high chair trays in households were themselves home to the same types of dangerous bacteria as the restaurants'. Considering how tactile my kids are, indeed all young children share a proclivity to chew and put in their mouths everything they can see, it's very worrying indeed, knowing that hand to mouth interaction is the primary source of infection for all of us, with children having weaker immune systems compounding the issue.
Being a practical kind of guy, I figured out a strategy to combat this problem, we'd clean everything ourselves, even clean the babies hands if necessary with hand sanitisers and soaps. As I'm sure you've anticipated, this became another worrying issue. Finding products gentle and safe for babies' skin and environment is no mean feat, alcohol gels and wipes are out for obvious reasons and many others were simply not gentle enough or contained unbelievably toxic substances like 'triclosan' which are only used in cosmetics because it's a cheap method of disposal for industrial chemical manufactures waste (a story for another time I think).
It was on this journey to protect my own children that I grew more and more to thinking, wouldn't it be good if all parents made sure their children were happily hygienic, in the high chairs and the like, that if we all could clean surfaces down and use hand sanitisers, we'd spread cleanliness instead of germs. We'd need a product that was safe, hypo-allergenic and lasted - if possible - to keep on protecting.
It turns out there are disinfectant products out there that are food safe, that last on surfaces hours after applying, that last on skin too, where it would only take a few responsible parents to protect everyone's children day after day, meal after meal. Problem solved.
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Oct 30, 2011 05:54:58
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