Chuck the Dishwasher. Doing Dishes Means Better Health for Children, Study Claims

If robust immunity for your children is priority, dump the dishwasher and adopt hand washing, a new study suggests.

According to the study from University of Gothenburg researchers, children whose families washed dishes and did not rely on a dishwasher had better immunity and fewer allergies. According to TIME, dishwashing now joins a long list of things suggested for children to help the immune system shape effectively during childhood. One of widely accepted theories about allergies is children cultivated in extremely clean environments are not exposed to microbes, which in turn deters their immune systems from developing.

"In families who use hand dishwashing, allergic diseases in children are less common than in children from families who use machine dishwashing. We speculate that a less-efficient dishwashing method may induce tolerance via increased microbial exposure," researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics.

The study's findings were based on information provided by 1,209 Swedish children aged 7 to 8 years. They found that households where hand washing dishes was the norm, children had a 40 percent lowered risk of developing eczema, asthma and hay fever, IB Times reported.

Researchers have theorized that eating from hand washed plates is more likely the reason behind children having better immunity rather children washing plates themselves. It is well known that machine washing dishes is more effective than hand washing.