<p>Probably OK.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/wonder/index.php?ntid=88616[/url]”>http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/wonder/index.php?ntid=88616</a></p>
<p>Well, I never thought the 5 second rule was scientifically valid. I actually thought it was invented by the Boy Scouts (or boys, anyway)–that’s where my boys picked it up, in any case. However, since they often used it when camping outdoors, maybe it wasn’t so bad, huh? My two seemed to have survived.</p>
<p>In our house it was a 3-second rule and it was just a joke. Five seconds or three, I can’t believe anyone really believed it.</p>
<p>Post this in the pre kindergarten forum where this belongs.</p>
<p>^^That was uncalled for.</p>
<p>Or there’s my father’s corollary: You have to eat a pound of dirt before you die.</p>
<p>We are the biggest babies on the planet…we aren’t that much healthier, we eat really bad junk food, drink bad soda, we have alot of smokers, we pollute the air, sit in traffic behind huge trucks, inhaling fumes, we eat fruit sprayed with who knows what, we eat sausage (yeah don’t think too much on that one), we deep fry things, and then we get all freaked out about a few germs…its dirt, dirt, dirt…show me someone who got sick from eat a grape that fell on the floor, or brushed off the dirt from a hotdog</p>
<p>while many people all over the world drink filthy water</p>
<p>we need to get over ourselves</p>
<p>amdgmom, that’s so close to my grandmother’s saying! Except she went for the more esoteric unit of measurement. 
</p>
<p>“We all must eat our peck of dirt before we die.”</p>
<p>ya gotta get your roughage somewhere</p>
<p>gosh… I always thought it was called the 30" rule (though practically speaking it was about 1") and no one in the family has died yet (ahh, the old “that which does not kill us will make us stronger” philosophy…). We don’t live in a grass hut with a dirt floor surrounded by goats, cows and fowl (though s#2s room is another story…), so I suspect whatever “stuff” food falls into is relatively benign. Will Pledge wood floor polish hurt? That’s probably on the floor somewhere.</p>
<p>I have 3 dogs; nothing is going to last 5 seconds.</p>
<p>^^Ha! I only have one, and I was going to say the same thing. The sound of a single speck of food hitting the kitchen floor reverberates throughout the entire house, to dog ears.</p>
<p>Our dog died… But I have a husband. He eats anything.</p>
<p>Yes, driver, it’s a disturbance in the “dog-force”</p>
<p>My dog has become one with The Force–a true Jedi Scavenger. Dark side of The Force: jumping into the dishwasher to lick dirty plates. Have put him up on the countertop to clean up major spills. Why waste it.</p>
<p>I have a lab- but she is picky
We went camping recently and I- always concerned about my husbands health- cooked bacon made from tofu!
It smelled really good- but he wouldn’t eat it- so I gave it to the dog.
She spit it out</p>
<p>lol, driver, I have a dishwasher dog too. He stands by the dishwasher after dinner and waits for me to load the dishes in. He is a big boy (75 lbs.) so can easily get his head into the whole bottom rack! Sometimes I cave to him and just sit one of the plates on the floor as I am often afraid he will impale himself on a fork in his mad quest to lick that last drop of gravy.</p>
<p>Another dishwasher dog here too…golden retriver about 80 lbs who LOVES this activity…sometimes, sadly, the highlight of his day.</p>
<p>
We call it the “pre-clean cycle.”</p>
<p>I agree with CGM. :)</p>
<p>What cracks me up is that scientists needed to do a study to determine that germs latch on instantly. Really, like we didn’t all know that.</p>
<p>Interestingly, a few germs are good for you. Our ultra-sanitized environment may be responsible for the increase in food allergies. Also, it’s good for the immune system.</p>