Thursday, February 3, 2011

Sugar and spice and puppydog tails

A lot of the clothes we have for Claire are gender neutral (lots of greens, yellows and blues). I like that instead of being a little boy or little girl, she can just be a little baby right now. It's nice to have people know she's a girl, but not really essential. Also, I don't want to pigeonhole her.

As this article highlights, Keeping Little Girls Squeaky Clean Could Make Them Sick, there are still a lot of gender biases that start quite early and can affect development for the rest of a child's life. And there are some interesting related hypotheses, such as the hygiene hypothesis, which boil down to stating that keeping kids in a germ-free environment and NOT stressing their immune systems will lead to more illnesses later in life. So, germ exposure during infancy and youth is purported to build up the immune system, like lifting weights builds muscles.

More doggies kisses, please!

2 comments:

Mike Russo said...

I think the dog kisses may be a little overboard. Have you seen what they do with those noses and tongues!? hahaha

mathbionerd said...

You might have a point there ;)