Post-delivery, when I got a sterilizer, I was criticized for being so fussy with the baby to even sterilize his spoons. When he turned 5 months old and was about to start crawling, my worries skyrocketed to the peak. I shared my apprehensions with my MIL and she promptly discarded them saying – “Don’t be overprotective of him. I don’t understand why parents these days don’t allow the caterpillar to crawl out of the cocoon. We grew up crawling in the kacha angan and we are more fit and healthy than your generation. Let him fight with the germs and gain resistance.” I acknowledge her thoughts but we must also appreciate the fact that most of our grannies used to stay in joint families, so there used to be more heads to supervise and take care of the baby 24×7 and hence, lesser chances of the baby hurting himself. Also back then, the bacteria were not as resistant as they are today because of the rampant use of antibiotics in crops and even medicines. Hence today, prevention is the best cure, especially for babies whose immune system is still not developed.
