5-second rule doesn't apply at WDW

[PB'sMOM]

I don't know how many of you know of the 5-second rule-but here goes. If something(food, for example) should fall on the floor(of course the floor is relatively clean & it is at my own home) I don't worry & freak out if my DD baby picks it up and eats it. Of course I would rather her not, but it's not like she's eating bugs.
On my recent trip to WDW I witnessed someone who obviously uses the 5-second rule in public places-Pecos Bill at Magic Kingdom.
It was a large family so they needed several tables. A little girl about 5 dropped her hotdog. Grandma sees the hot dog fall-gets up from her table walks over to where the girl is sitting with her dad and scoops the hot dog up with a napkin. Grandma wipes the dog with the napkin and hands it to dad. Dad gets another napkin wipes it and picks something off the hot dog and hands it back to the girl. The girl eats it.
Needless to say I just about lost my entire lunch that I had just consumed-including the chocolate cream pie.
I mentioned this incident to several family members of mine and they all agreed-the 5-second rule does not apply in public places.

 

[FatCow]

Uhmm, there is no such thing as the 5-second rule it's bogus and stupid.

At home, public place, anywhere at all. It's clinically unhealthy.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I agree with you about the 5 second rule in public--we only use it at home. However, I do use the 3 second rule in public.

Seriously, though, I remember when my then toddler son was eating a cookie when I was checking out at Sam's Club. Of course he dropped it and started to scream. Like any good mother with her fourth child, I quickly gave it back to him. Yes, past my comfort zone for sure, but it didn't kill him. As a matter of fact, this is the child who has never had more than a cold or stomach virus in his almost 5 years and have never had a sick dr visit. His immune system is good...

Oh, speaking of the 5 second rule, the other day one of my kids dropped something on the floor that I'd just mopped and my DH wanted them to throw it away. Uh, I had to explain the 5 second rule to him. Don't think he's buying it.

T&B

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

As a professional nanny and a mommy I can definitely agree that the hot dog was icky! Even a $5 hot dog is icky after it falls on the ground, even if you wipe it with a napkin!

I am pretty fanatical about not letting kids eat off the ground. Of course they always manage to find a stray Goldfish now and then, but I do my best to avoid it! I read an article once that said if something dry (like a cracker) falls on a surface that is dry (like the floor) then it probably isn't all THAT dirty. But if it falls on a wet surface (like the sidewalk) it will have far more bacteria stuck to it. I would think if the item that falls is wet or sticky it stands to reason that many more germs will adhere to it when it hits the ground. YUCK!

Really, the floors in ANY public place have to be completely crawling with bacteria from all the shoes tramping in and out. No telling what people have stepped in! Even a public floor that has just been mopped with bleach isn't a floor I want my child (or the children in my care) to eat off of!

 

[BrianMonk]

If I'm around, don't throw it away, give it to me. I'll take it.

You want to see dirt, check your furnace filter. You'll stop breathing once you take a good look at it.

 

[Hippychickali]

Y'know...I probably wouldn't have done that with a hot dog for my child because I'm too lazy to go through the trouble. I probably would have just bought a new one. But to be quite honest, there was probably very little wrong with it. The ground, after all, has far less bacteria than most of the tables in public places not to mention handrails and public telephones. Dirt is pretty natural; it's the bacteria transmitted by our hands that I worry about. So the child was more likely to get sick from someone breathing on it or touching it when they prepared it than it rolling around on the ground. I'm just saying....

Ali

 

[simpilotswife]

This is exactly why children get so many illnesses these days. The hot dog landing on the floor still would have been cleaner than many of the sanitary conditions that existed 100 yrs ago.

 

[Hippychickali]

Not only that but parents who use "anti-bacterial" products (usually the clean freaks) are actually contributing to making their children more ill (i.e. weaker immune systems) in the long run.

Ali

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The OP brought back memories of the first time DH and I took our then 2yr old twins to Disney on Ice and the chaos that ensued while we were trying to get settled in our seats. DH hands DS2 the *whole* hotdog he'd just bought on the way in ($4.50 BTW): DS goes to take a bite and of course, the whole thing pops out of the bun and flies smack into the middle of the aisle. DS starts to scream and because people were already annoyed with our late arrival and fumbling with "stuff" now both kids are crying and DH is about to blow a gasket! We picked it up and pretended for the benefit of those around us to throw it away, but I will admit I wiped it off and gave it to him a few minutes later because I could feel the angry mob was about to string us up! I wonder how many people noticed that day; I know I would have watched for it, lol! But under normal circumstances I would have tossed the hot dog and gotten another.

Personally, I worry more about whether the food's been handled and prepared properly before it arrives our plates and whether the cook washed his hands after he used the toilet than I do about kids eating goldfish or a jelly bean off the floor. But that's just me.

 

[epcotfan]

I would be more concerned with something falling onto the surface of a fast food table than the floor. I've seen nasty rags used to "clean" the tables. I can only imagine the bacteria being smeared around. Chances are the handrails on rides and table tops are filthier than the floor. You are more likely to get sick from coming in contact with something someone's hands have touched. Some people don't wash after using the rest room, children pick their noses, people touch their faces, run their hands through their hair...etc...

 

[lark]

It's clinically unhealthy. [/B]

Clinically? Really? That must have been an interesting study.

It's a little gross, to be sure. Unhealthy? Maybe, but unlikely much more so than eating in a theme park in general or putting your hand up to your nose or mouth after touching all the stuff that's in a theme park.

It is a very safe bet that the average child's (not to mention adult's) hand during a day in a theme park has the same disgusting stuff on it as the floor; actually the hand probably has much more bacteria while the floor probably has less bacteria but more dirt. Even for those of you who wash the entire family's hands immediately before eating (a very very small number, I'm sure), if you think the stuff you're touching in the restaurant after washing your hands is materially different from the floor, you'd be wrong. And even if it were, the door handle on the way out of the bathroom is, virtually certainly, about 100 times worse than the floor.

 

[Mysteria]

Originally posted by Hippychickali
Y'know...I probably wouldn't have done that with a hot dog for my child because I'm too lazy to go through the trouble. I probably would have just bought a new one. But to be quite honest, there was probably very little wrong with it. The ground, after all, has far less bacteria than most of the tables in public places not to mention handrails and public telephones. Dirt is pretty natural; it's the bacteria transmitted by our hands that I worry about. So the child was more likely to get sick from someone breathing on it or touching it when they prepared it than it rolling around on the ground. I'm just saying....

Ali

Myst

 

[Beca]

I heard THE most germ-ridden items in the world are hotel-room remote controls. It seems the germs on those would put most toilets to shame!! If you don't spray the remote control with Clorox spray (every 24 hrs)...well, if you hold it and don't immediately wash your hands...I think I'd rather my child eat the hot dog off the floor...although both make me a little queasy.



Beca

 

[mrsschlep]

We too use the 5 second rule. My kids actually drop things on purpose-one drops while the other counts to see if they can pick it up in time. (of course this is only in our home). I once read that every person consumes about a pound of dirt before they die. I don't know how true it is but I see how it could be possible.

 

[CaipiraBob]

<P>In all due brevity, those that I love do not eat off the floor.</P>

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by CaipiraBob
<P>In all due brevity, those that I love do not eat off the floor.</P>

If it falls on the floor, it's garbage.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Very true about the table surfaces in public places. The rag that wiped that table wiped many things before it and was not always disinfected first. Even if a disinfectant was sprayed on the table, it is then wiped with the bacteria laden rag.

Also true about the anti-bacterial products. When we are unable to wash our hands with soap and warm water (and use the paper towel to open the bathroom door!) we use Purell wipes. They are alcohol based and not anti-bacterial. Better than nothing.

And don't get me started on bathroom door handles! Yuck!

T&B

 

[FatCow]

This is why it's clinically unhealthy:

a quote from an actual experiment regarding the 5-second rule:

The Five Second Rule: Myth or Fact?

Last summer, Jillian Clarke, a high school student doing an apprenticeship at Hans Blaschek's University of Illinois laboratory decided to test the validity of the 5-second rule. Clarke first surveyed 100 college students (50 male, 50 female) to see what they knew about the rule. Of those surveyed, 70% of the women and 56% of the men were familiar with and had used the 5-second rule.

Cookies and candies were much more likely to be picked up and eaten than items such as cauliflower or broccoli. Clarke then took swab samples from floors around campus to determine bacterial counts. The floors were surprisingly clean. Next, Clark inoculated rough and smooth floor tiles with E. coli bacteria. She placed Gummy Bears and fudge striped cookies on the inoculated floor tiles for 5 seconds, then examined the foods under a high-powered microscope.

Her findings showed that in all cases E. coli was transferred from the tile to the food, demonstrating that microorganisms CAN be transferred from ceramic tile to food in 5 seconds or less.

Clark found that more E. coli was transferred from smooth tiles than from rough tiles and that both the dry cookies and the gummy bears became contaminated with only 5 seconds of contact with the inoculated tiles.

 

[pvl000]

Clarke then took swab samples from floors around campus to determine bacterial counts. The floors were surprisingly clean.

Exactly, the floors are surprisingly bacteria free. Sure bacteria are transfered when you seed the floor with bacteria but...

 

[lark]

I heard THE most germ-ridden items in the world are hotel-room remote controls.

Probably an overstatement, but I'm sure this is generally right. There's a lot of gross stuff in a hotel room -- housekeeping generally does not disenfect daily many of the places that you'd find skanky stuff.

But one of the leading culprits for hidden bad stuff are poker chips. Anyone who has handled them and then puts their hands to their mouth or nose is getting far more bacteria than eating a hot dog off the floor at a disney theme park. I'm tempted to say that the most unhealthy thing about a hot dog that touched the floor is the hot dog.

The point is not that the floor is not gross -- it is -- but so is alot of other stuff the hot dog and the hand touches before the hot dog gets to the mouth. I too do not follow a 5 second rule or pick stuff up off the floor to eat, but it's mostly a psychological problem, not a health one.