Is your dishwasher making you sick?

Squeaky clean dishes might not be that good for your health. Source: Getty Images

IT PAINS me to write this, however you should know, for the sake of your family's health, that handwashing the dishes is probably better for you.

Researchers in Sweden found that children living in homes where the family handwashed their dishes were about 40 per cent less likely to develop allergies compared with kids in homes that used a dishwasher, according to study researcher Dr Bill Hesselmar, an allergist at the University of Gothenburg Department of Paediatrics.

Why is it so?

You know that squeaky clean feeling those shiny dishes have when they come out of the magical, wonderful, machine of happiness? Well, apparently that is bad. It's bad because it gets rid of all of the bacteria. Bacteria that remains on the dishes when you are cleaning them by plunging them (and your hands) into a sink full of tepid dinner soup.

Researchers suggest that the bacteria left on handwashed plates may teach the body to tolerate its environment, and prevent hygiene hypothesis from occurring.

MORE: Food allergies and intolerances in babies and toddlers

It might look squeaky clean, but could your dishwasher be making you sick? Source: Getty Images

That old "hygiene" chestnut

In medicine, the hygiene hypothesis is a theory that states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, symbiotic microorganisms and parasites — AKA good old-fashioned dirt and germs — increases their susceptibility to allergic diseases by suppressing the natural development of the immune system. In particular, the lack of exposure is thought to lead to defects in the establishment of immune tolerance.

In other words, every thing is too damn clean.

"We are trying to find sources of 'harmless' microbial exposures in daily life that may be good enough to reduce allergy in children who are otherwise not exposed to a rich microbial flora in the same way as farm-living children," says Dr Doom Dr Bill Hesselmar. "If you are exposed to microbes, especially early in life, you stimulate the immune system in various ways and it becomes tolerant. We thought [hand washing dishes] might be important but we didn't know so we asked that question."

MORE: What's dirty? Your dishwasher apparently

How did they work this out?

The good folks of the research team looked at data from a 2007 survey of Swedish parents of 1029 children aged seven and eight. Of those families, about 12 per cent usually washed dishes by hand; 84 per cent usually used a dishwashing machine.

What they discovered was an increase in children with allergies in the homes where a dishwasher was the main weapon used in the attack of the dishes.

For example:

Eczema — About 23 per cent of children from homes where dishes were handwashed had eczema, compared to 38 per cent of kids whose parents who usually used a dishwasher.

Asthma — 2 per cent of kids in homes with handwashed dishes had asthma, compared to about 7 per cent of kids in the dishwasher homes.

The researchers looked at other factors that may influence whether or not a child would have allergies, but the resounding truth is that washing dishes by hand was tied to a 43 per cent reduced risk of allergies.

MORE: You will not believe what's in my dishwasher!

Rates of conditions such as eczema and asthma were higher in kids who had dishwasher at home. Source: Getty Images

Is it really just the dishwasher to blame?

Look, kids are germ factories. We all know it. As clean as we try to keep things, you know they are sharing their snot, eating the cat food and licking the furniture. Maybe that is a good thing though. Our TVs present us with super clean mums, merrily pushing a mop across their germ ridden floors and smiling at their baby that they know is now germ-free, and we want a slice of that action too.

Off we trot to the supermarket to load up on all sorts of antibacterial products from soaps, surface cleaners and sprays to hand sanitiser, antibacterial wipes and purse-sized gels to carry with us at all times.

Zero germs = sick kids = hygiene hypothesis. You see, it simply cannot be the fault of the dishwasher alone … can it?

Look, here's the thing, I only recently got my first dishwasher. I have a tonne of kids and prior to the addition of my sweet, sweet dishwasher I was washing everything by hand. Bottles, plates, cups, frying pans, everything — four to five times a day. Never again. NEVER. AGAIN.

Am I in fear of hygiene hypothesis? No, I'm not. In fact, I shared a picture on my Facebook page just this week that clearly identifies why I have no concerns that hygiene hypothesis will be happening at my house any time soon …