What is the opposite of a germaphobe?

[pperfectmom]

A "germophile"? Whatever it is, I guess I'm one. In our household we embrace germs and give them the love that everyone else seems to withhold. I never get freaked out by the news media. I really don't give a you-know-what about swine flu and I'm not the least bit worried. My kids and the pets play in the dirt, in the sandbox, in their noses, etc. and we still only wash their hands a couple times a day. Guess what? They/we are very rarely sick. I'm sorry but I just don't understand other people.

 

[Robinrs]

LOL! I'm with you! I have 2 sisters that are COMPLETE germaphobes and they're ALWAYS sick. Our family doctor didn't even know me until I had to get a doctor's note to attend camp when I was a teenager!

I caught my FIRST cold in my 30s!! Scared the crap out of me!

My son caught his first cold this year at 16. He was blown away. He's never sick either! I remember if you subject yourself you build up an immunity... I dunno, but it works for us!

 

[Chicago526]

Sounds like me too! Other than when I'm in the kitchen, I'm pretty lax about germs. I haven't been sick since 2002, and before that '97. And that's with DH bringing every cold and bug home from work, he gets sick at the drop of a hat. But I never catch it from him.

I figure I get one bad cold or stomach bug about once every five years...hmmm...that makes me overdue!

 

[Quacktatty]

There's a study that says that people who pick their nose and eat it get sick less often than those who don't. Just sayin...

 

[C.Ann]

I think it's been well documented that people who are "over the top" in regards to germs; cleanliness; antibacterial soaps; etc., are often sick more frequently and require stronger medications to get well because their immune systems have never been allowed to "fend for themselves" - so to speak..

There are certain things that I need to be very careful of due to known health issues I have - but other than that, I'm pretty lax.. Yes - I'm the one who will pick the cookie up off of the floor and "kiss it up to God" (the way I was raised).. My kids (and now my DGD) are "mud lovers".. Big deal.. I don't wash my hair every single night - gasp!! Here at the lake I will often wear the same shirt and jogging pants for - brace yourself - two days in a row!!! Double gasp! We're a family that is big on walking barefoot - indoors and out.. Triple gasp!!!

There's common sense - and then there's "phobias".. I just lean towards common sense and so far neither I nor my children (nor my DGD) have contracted leprosy; TB; Lyme Disease; bird flu; swine flu; or any other absolutely horrid, contagious, germ-causing diseases..

I've read about this current talk of a "pandemic" - but mostly just to stay "informed" - not to run off and hide in a cave somewhere.. We all have to die from something - ya know? No one gets out of here "alive"...

 

[PatsMom]

I don't own a Lysol wipe and I don't routinely buy hand sanitizer - only for when we are camping without running water to use after visiting the outhouse! So I guess that puts me in with this group. The 10 second rule applies to all dropped food that isn't sticky. We go barefoot most of the time in the house and yard.

We are very rarely ill. Which is amazing because DH and I have some significant medical issues! My DD is also disgustingly healthy.

 

[mamacatnv]

My BFF who is a Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer addict has the sick house. Someone in her house is always sick and she is sick quite often also. Now she has a 3 year old petri dish who goes to school so he is an uneding source of crud, but I personally think all her "prevention" has made things worse. She washes, wipes, sanitizes, sprays, gels, rubs etc....

Me, we walk bare foot in hotel rooms, we don't use seat liners I think trying to get them into the bowl is eewier than going comando, we sit on and use the blankets/comforters and tv remotes provided by hotels, we sit in airplane and bus seats without dousing with Lysol first, we touch door handles, shopping carts and who knows what else.

We wash hands before meals or food prep and more often when traveling but other than that we don't give it a second thought. We are a pretty healthy bunch and always have been.

I am a stickler about handling raw meat but that is about it.

 

[yeartolate]

There's a study that says that people who pick their nose and eat it get sick less often than those who don't. Just sayin...

OMG, I just googled!

The Case for Picking Your Nose and Eating It
Professor Dr. Friedrich, a lung specialist in Austria, says picking your nose and eating it is healthy for two reasons:
1) "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner."
2) "Eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system. The nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria is collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine."

 

[metalis4ever]

OMG, I just googled!

The Case for Picking Your Nose and Eating It
Professor Dr. Friedrich, a lung specialist in Austria, says picking your nose and eating it is healthy for two reasons:
1) "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner."
2) "Eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system. The nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria is collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine."

Microscopic Evolution at it's finest If only we could develop a way to flavor the stuff

 

[C.Ann]

OMG, I just googled!

The Case for Picking Your Nose and Eating It
Professor Dr. Friedrich, a lung specialist in Austria, says picking your nose and eating it is healthy for two reasons:
1) "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner."
2) "Eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system. The nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria is collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine."

------------------

TMI

 

[dogluva]

Microscopic Evolution at it's finest If only we could develop a way to flavor the stuff

Oh, I don't know, from what I remember it tastes pretty salty.

 

[gate_pourri]

A "germophile"? Whatever it is, I guess I'm one. In our household we embrace germs and give them the love that everyone else seems to withhold. I never get freaked out by the news media. I really don't give a you-know-what about swine flu and I'm not the least bit worried. My kids and the pets play in the dirt, in the sandbox, in their noses, etc. and we still only wash their hands a couple times a day. Guess what? They/we are very rarely sick. I'm sorry but I just don't understand other people.

Haha... See, I am rather germ-paranoid. I hate throwing up and anything that could possibly lead to me throwing up causes paranoia in me. I use hand sanitizer more than I should... BUT, I am not concerned about this swine flu and am a bit amused by the hording of food and drugs.

 

[TomLovesBecky]

LOL! I'm with you! I have 2 sisters that are COMPLETE germaphobes and they're ALWAYS sick. Our family doctor didn't even know me until I had to get a doctor's note to attend camp when I was a teenager!

I caught my FIRST cold in my 30s!! Scared the crap out of me!

My son caught his first cold this year at 16. He was blown away. He's never sick either! I remember if you subject yourself you build up an immunity... I dunno, but it works for us!

Huh??? Do you really believe that???

 

[arminnie]

Huh??? Do you really believe that???

Yeah I do. I had the usual measles, chicken pox, etc stuff between 3-5 years old - but did not get sick again (except for throwing up a couple of times) until I was in my 20s. And then it was tonsilitis not a cold.

I have asthma and have had pneumonia a couple of times. I just rarely get anything as simple as a cold.

I've probably had less than 10 colds in my lifetime. I had some sinus infections (for about 6 months) until I had surgery ten years ago. I've only had one cold since then.

(Now I will probably die from the swine flu for writing this.)

 

[disney1990]

A "germophile"? Whatever it is, I guess I'm one. In our household we embrace germs and give them the love that everyone else seems to withhold. I never get freaked out by the news media. I really don't give a you-know-what about swine flu and I'm not the least bit worried. My kids and the pets play in the dirt, in the sandbox, in their noses, etc. and we still only wash their hands a couple times a day. Guess what? They/we are very rarely sick. I'm sorry but I just don't understand other people.

Most of the people that I know that are Germophobic, are constantly sick. Go figure.

Not afraid of a little dirt here! My Mom is from the South. She says, "you have to eat a peck of dirt before your die."

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Yeah, I've never cared about that sort of thing and I rarely get sick. Don't use hand sanitizer. I wash my hands, but only when I've used the restroom or handled chicken or something. I won't say I never had a cold, but they're never all that bad. I didn't like missing school, so basically I ignored it when I got sick. Only years later did I realize that not everyone was as healthy as my family, and some mothers might not have liked me coming to school full of disease. Oh, well.

I never had measels or chicken pox. I did have one bad case of bronchitis/laryngitis/strep-throat that lasted a good 3 months, but I went to school through the majority of it. Culminated in having my tonsils out and afterwards, everything was fine.

I am in no way, shape or form concerned about swine flu.

 

[Robinrs]

Huh??? Do you really believe that???

What do you mean do I believe that? It's MY life!! My Mom thought something was wrong with me because I was NEVER sick. My sister, who is only 11 months older, was sick ALL the time. Everything from tonsilitis to appendicitis, she was hospitalized over and over while I actually ENVIED the attention she got for being sick.

My first time inside a hospital was giving birth to my first son at 31.

I did have sinusitus but it was not from anyone contagious. I went out of my way to help contagious people, mainly because I was not afraid of catching what they had. My sister would cover her mouth and run away every time she saw a sick person... then end up as sick as they were.

I'm blessed I guess, and thrilled my son, so far, is about the same! Of course in my old age I'm now suffering from the typical degenerative stuff, but I'm still pretty okay for an old broad!!

 

[denisenh]

bunch of germaholics....all of ya's.

 

[almburr]

I keep a clean bathroom and kitchen, but I do not use hand sanitizer, or lysol wipes. I use soap and hot water. Kids play in the dirt. They use tissues not thier thier sleeves. The house is kept cool in winter and I hardly run AC in summer ( it gets to be 110 degrees) I will turn it on when it hits 90 but its set at 81. We head down to the family room.

Kids eat things off the floor nothing slimmy or meaty. DS8 a few years when he was 4 I found him eating a cinnamon roll on the couch. We made them about 2weeks prior, He said he found it under the couch. My dad has been known to pick up a fallen jolly rancher off the ground in the cattle pen as we were working them (it was his he dropped it).

I grew up drinking well water, playing in mud,and cattle pens barefoot. As do my kids.

Germ contact is good for you, Im not saying lick the toilet and what not. But come on you cannot live in a bubble, and if you do and it gets popped you will get sick, very sick.

 

[OK!]

Raw meat is about the only thing I'm overly concerned about, and that's only because I gave myself food poisoning once after I cooked chicken for the first time. Spending the night in agonizing pain and projectile vomiting will tend to make you a little cautious about stuff like that.

But otherwise....I'm surprised my eyeballs don't roll clean out of my head when I read the germaphobe threads here...people who have to bring their own sheets and everything to hotels, who have to wipe down every square inch of everything they touch in WDW, etc. I'm amazed they find any time to have fun after getting done disinfecting the universe!