"One recent theory holds that a possible reason for the increase of ear infections, asthma and allergies in kids today is because they tend to be brought up in a more sterile environment than in the past."

Yeah? Another recent theory is that today's kids tend to get plopped into daycare with too many small kids in one place, some of whom are coming down with something.

When I see the statistics from poor countries that have high rates of death for children, (from infant diahrrea, etc) I think I would much rather expose my children to too much cleanliness than to too much filth.

Meanwhile, there are good germs, bad germs and neutral germs.

I don't think I'm over-fussy about germs, but whenever I cut up meat, I wash the cutting board immediately. I keep antibacterial wipes in th kitchen, and after cutting up meat, I wipe down the refrigerator handle, the faucet handles, the microwaves buttons and other such things that we touch all the time.

The floor is pretty much on its own.

I read in an article once that most cases of "flu" are really food poisoning caused by unclean kitchens.