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Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

> Along with songs, the text suggests parents rub dust from a significant street, doorway, or even a grave—perhaps representing an ominous, ultimate silence—on a wailing baby.

[...]

> Scholars believe these words likely originated in folk poetry that had been transmitted orally for years before being written down sometime between 500 and 300 B.C.

So the sandman myth is not Northern European folklore after all but originated more than 2500 years ago in the Middle East.

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I've raised three kids and was working with a guy who brought his sixth child to the office to take care of while his wife was away with work. His child was a month or two old and was pretty fussy and co-worker seemed to be at his wit's end. I asked him if he had tried the "off" switch, which he had never heard of. I started calmly and regularly stroking the baby's forehead from the mid-forehead to between the eyes. Kid was out like a light in less than a minute. Co-worker asked me how I knew that trick and I asked him how he didn't given this was his sixth kid.

I wonder if the "rub dust" method originated with something like this but used the dust component as a means of justification/explanation to people so that they would be focused on calmly applying the dust rather than going overboard with the stroke on the forehead due to frustration.

Bringing a 2mo old baby to the office has great potential to obliterate the productivity of the entire team... I'm really surprised that the management accepted this instead of giving the guy some days off.

This is mandated by law in some EU countries, but I assume the companies don't like it.

If nothing else the baby might stop crying momentarily while it's confused about what you're rubbing on it.

Rubbing street dirt on babies should also improve their immune system so they won't get sick as often.

I'd imagine you're merely trading sick now for sick later.

Nah, dirt won't make them really sick, but it will expose them to all kinds of bacteria which studies have shown could help prevent asthma, allergies, and other problems down the road if you expose them while they are young. I wouldn't recommend exposing a kid to every cold and disease you can just trying to get them sick, but playing in dirt seems to have benefits that spare them from reoccurring problems later.

If you're talking about first world street dirt I agree. If you're talking about ancient Mesopotamian city street dirt, I think you're asking for norovirus, dysentery, cholera, etc. Yes they had sewers and even pipes, but stormwater and sanitary sewers weren't separate and often relied on open ditches.

Citation?

I'll admit "Cover your baby in filth to prevent illness" makes for some good click-bait,and parents are a vulnerable group for junk science, but it's an old idea and there have been studies with some promising results. I'm also encouraged by the fact that there's not a clear or direct financial benefit to any one company or industry by telling parents to expose their young children to dirt and animals.

Here's some links on the subject:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8373690.stm

https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749%2812%2900519-2...

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/allergies/study-finds-more-ev...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

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