Eating boogers. Digging in their pants. Peeing in the pool. Kids do gross things. It’s a fact of life. Thankfully, many of these stomach-turning situations pose little or no health risk for your child.
Here are five common things kids do that are gross but will grow out of someday.
Eating boogers
“Sticking your finger in your nose is universal, and it starts very young,” said Dr. Keith Pulvermacher, a pediatrician with Marshfield Clinic Health System.
Every day, Dr. Pulvermacher sees kids digging for gold and eating the hard-won prize.
“It usually happens with that younger age group that doesn’t have full self-awareness yet,” Dr. Pulvermacher said. He said there is an unproven hypothesis that kids sticking their fingers in their mouths may help with developing their immune system.
Dr. Pulvermacher said eating boogers poses no more health risk than when kids stick their fingers in their mouths. You can remind your child to keep hands down away from their face. However, you are probably better to just continue handwashing before and after meals or if you notice your child picking their nose.
Playing with food is like the booger issue. All kids do it, and it’s not a significant health risk.
Children putting hands in pants
Let’s be real, sometimes kids stick their fingers in their pants, touching their butts and other private areas. As parents, we’ve seen it and scolded, but it keeps happening.
Kids transitioning out of diapers tend be the ones most prone to this form of unsavory exploration.
Hands can become contaminated with fecal material, which poses a health risk. It is possible to contract dangerous forms of E. Coli from contact with fecal matter.
If you notice your child with their hands or fingers in their diaper, you should always wash hands or use hand sanitizer on the go.
Eating Play-Doh
Kids love to explore and Play-Doh is a good activity for kids to learn fine motor skills, be creative, learn to problem solve and more. Unfortunately, some Play-Doh is made to look like food or smells appealing so it ends up in your kid’s mouth.
Play-Doh is non-toxic and eating small amounts of it is harmless, Dr. Pulvermacher said.
Here is a homemade recipe to create your own playdough at home.
Print Homemade Playdough Recipe
Peeing in pools
“In all normal circumstances, there is no harm in your kid peeing in a pool,” Dr. Pulvermacher said. “Being in a pool with urine is not a health risk either.”
Urine, he said, is sterile and typically not a health risk for passing on illness. So while there may be nothing more horrifying than passing through a suspicious warm spot in a public pool, there is no medical reason to worry.
Peeing in any water like baths is sterile as well. It is important to remind your child that they should go to the bathroom on the toilet even when in the pool or bathtub because you wouldn’t want them to go poop in the water.
As mentioned with hands in fecal matter, poop would need to be thoroughly cleaned before re-entering the fun.
Not washing hands
“Washing hands is probably the number one thing we can do to prevent illness,” Dr. Pulvermacher said. “It’s a huge boon to you and your kids’ health to wash hands thoroughly.”
While washing hands with soap and water appears preferable to just using hand sanitizer, both are good habits to adopt. You and your children can use sanitizers in addition to hand washing as a good supplement.
In summary, kids do gross things, and for the most part, that’s just fine.
For questions or concerns, talk to a Marshfield Children’s provider.
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