When a baby enters the house, the number of gadgets increases and hookahs and the chances of some of them going to the ground increase, either because we have too many of them in our hands (and parents tend to be clumsy with several things in their hands) or because the one who manipulates them is the baby.
Bearing in mind that babies have the extraordinary ability to bring everything we give them to the ground, repeatedly and at a rather astonishing speed, we should keep in mind that not always when something falls to the floor we must run to clean it. I repeat: not always (but many times yes).
To make this statement we will consider the call five second rule, well known in the US (70% of women know it, by 50% of men), which says that when an object falls to the ground, if it is picked up before five seconds have passed, it is not officially "dirty" . Let's talk a little about this rule to know what is true in it, because this rule also applies to food.
There is a saying that "when the first child drops a pacifier, soaps and rinses it with water before giving it to him, the second one is cleaned in his shirt and the third one is returned with a kick." It is a way of saying that the concern for hygiene is being lost as children grow up or when you have others and you realize that it is likely that you do not need so much sterilization or so much caution. In my view, neither so much nor so little ... common sense.
The reality is that germs are not really everywhere (at least not the most problematic). A recent study conducted at the University of Connecticut suggests that if it is dry food, such as cookies, it is not 5 seconds but nothing less than 30 minutes that can remain on the ground without being contaminated. However, in this study the level of contamination of the surfaces where they left the food is not specified and there are also other previous studies that do not cause such confidence.
In 2003, in Illinois, they showed that the number of bacteria on the floor of various places on the university campus (cafeteria, library, hallways, ...) was remarkably low. Seeing this, the author of the study contaminated ceramic tiles with Escherichia coli and placed candy and cookies on the tiles for five seconds to see if they were contaminated with bacteria or not. The result was that they were contaminated.
Last year another study was conducted at Clemson University. They contaminated several surfaces with Salmonella and tried to leave food for five seconds. The result was the almost immediate transmission of Salmonella to food (bread and sausages). In fact they revealed that Salmonella can survive up to four weeks on dry surfaces.
The conclusion therefore is that the five second rule is not such. The important thing is not the time that really passes, but how dirty the surface is where the object or food falls (if it is the garden, as in the image, it is almost better to wash it).
On the other hand, it is not the same that something falls that we are going to return to a baby, whose immune system is immature (maturation comes between two and six years), than to a child of 3 or 4 years.
I know that my house is relatively clean, so when a spoon falls to the ground I say mentally: "One, two, three ...".
