{"id":21231,"date":"2019-01-03T11:13:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T00:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=21231"},"modified":"2019-01-03T11:13:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T00:13:48","slug":"for-30-years-ive-been-obsessed-by-why-children-get-leukaemia-now-we-have-an-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=21231","title":{"rendered":"\u2018For 30 years I\u2019ve been obsessed by why children get leukaemia. Now we have an answer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"372\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Prof_Mel_Greaves.jpg\" alt=\"Prof Mel Greaves\" class=\"wp-image-21232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Prof_Mel_Greaves.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Prof_Mel_Greaves-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor an immune system to work properly, it needs to be confronted by an infection in the first year of life,\u201d says Greaves. &#8220;Without that confrontation with an infection, the system is left unprimed and will not work properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this issue is becoming an increasingly worrying problem. Parents, for laudable reasons, are raising children in homes where antiseptic wipes, antibacterial soaps and disinfected floorwashes are the norm. Dirt is banished for the good of the household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, there is less breast feeding of infants and a tendency for them to have fewer social contacts with other children. Both trends reduce babies\u2019 contact with germs. This has benefits \u2013 but also comes with side effects. Because young children are not being exposed to bugs and infections as they once were, their immune systems are not being properly primed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2018\/dec\/30\/children-leukaemia-mel-greaves-microbes-protection-against-disease\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2018\/dec\/30\/children-leukaemia-mel-greaves-microbes-protection-against-disease<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFor an immune system to work properly, it needs to be confronted by an infection in the first year of life,\u201d says Greaves. &#8220;Without that confrontation with an infection, the system is left unprimed and will not work properly.\u201d And this issue is becoming an increasingly worrying problem. Parents, for laudable reasons, are raising children &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=21231\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;\u2018For 30 years I\u2019ve been obsessed by why children get leukaemia. Now we have an answer\u2019&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-health-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21233,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21231\/revisions\/21233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}