My son ate dirt! Should I be worried?

I was outside this evening pulling weeds in my garden yet again (a never-ending battle). My 20-month-old son was outside playing with his 5-year-old sister. I wasn't paying much attention to them other than looking up ocassionally to see where they were. When I finished, I noticed that my son had a ring of dirt around his mouth. Apparently, he must of eaten some dirt. Ewww! Should I be worried about him? What's done is done and I can't reverse it. I'm choosing not to worry about it. It's good for him to build up some immunities. I would not intentionally expose him to germs, but it's impossible to avoid all germs.

All babies that are in the crawling stage put everything they find in their mouth. My son still puts things in his mouth sometimes, but not as much as he used to. I have a family of 8 people tracking dirt in from outside. While I do now have a vacuum cleaner that sanitizes, I'm sure there are still plenty of germs on my floor. I don't freak out if my son picks something up and puts it in his mouth. If it's something he might choke on, I will go dig it out of his mouth. Otherwise, I don't worry about it. Maybe it's because he's the 6th child and I'm not as uptight as I was with the first.

What about scary germs like H1N1? Again, I would never intentionally expose my son or any of my kids to germs. When the swine flu was circulating last year, I was extra cautious when out in public. I am generally cautious in public anyway. I watch out for people who are coughing and stay away from them. I try to avoid touching things as much as possible. I sanitize my hands and my kids hands often. As soon as the H1N1 vaccine became available to everyone, I had my whole family vaccinated. I know someone who almost died from swine flu, and I don't want to take any chances with that. My family also had an experience with MRSA that I absolutely never want to deal with again! That is another big reason that I am very cautious about germs. I am a germophobe and proud of it!

Do adults still need to build up immunities? My opinion is no. I have had enough colds, stomach bugs, food poisoning, etc. I prefer to avoid germs and build up my immune system through diet, supplements and exercise. I plan to stay healthy! Go to my website, http://www.howtobeagermophobe.com/ and sign up for a free report: "How To Boost Your Immune System."

Swine Flu Declared National Emergency

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – "President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients.

The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government's initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.

Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick patients.

Hospitals could modify patient rules — for example, requiring them to give less information during a hectic time — to quicken access to treatment, with government approval, under the declaration.

On April 26, the administration declared swine flu a public health emergency, allowing the shipment of roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually needed them. At the time, there were 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. of people recovering easily. There was no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the initial step necessary for producing one.

"As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter the emerging pandemic," Obama wrote in Saturday's declaration.

He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there's a potential "to overburden health care resources."

"Many millions" of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate that CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden gave Friday. The government doesn't test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn't have an exact count. He also said there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations."


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