Parenting Topic: The Pacifier Five Second Rule

There are two types of parents: the ones who sanitize a pacifier after it hits the floor, and the ones who say “germs are good for you” and pop the pacifier back in the baby’s mouth.

A new study out of the American Society for Clinical Pathology that took pacifiers actually being used by healthy infants found 40 different species of bacteria on just 10 pacifiers. We’re talking serious bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia. Read more here.

Setup Ideas:

• For parents on the show, what kind of parent were/are you? Did you live by the five second rule with pacifiers?

• Ask listeners to weigh in on whether pacifiers should be sanitized, given the results of this study? Anyone listening who still thinks germs build immunities after hearing about the present bacteria?

• Parenthood is messy. Ask listeners: “What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever done as a parent?”