If You’re Making These 10 Hygiene Mistakes, You Could Be Making Your Kids Sick

Don’t treat your home like a hospital

Hospitals have to guard against rampaging infections around a population—patients—who may have weakened immunity. (Here are some ways to keep your immune system healthy.) Achieving a hospital’s antiseptic smell at home shouldn’t be your goal, says Jack Gilbert, PhD, the co-author of Dirt Is Good. “A sterile home reduces the immune-stimulating microbial exposure that can strengthen your child’s immune system, so don’t bleach everything all the time.”