Five second rule.

I know my kid is going to eat stuff he drops, that is just a fact of life. Kids put everything in their mouth, what is on the floor is probably already in their mouth (or will be shortly). I would be more concerned about my tooth brush being too close to the toilet. If you watch mythbusters, the time you have to eat food off of the floor is much longer than 5 seconds before anything actually transfers to it.

I wonder what happened if that thing fell into something dirty or yucky for less than five seconds? Are the kids allowed to pick it up since it is less than five seconds but that thing will be awfully dirty. LOL!

I've heard of the five second rule. In my house, if you drop anything on the floor that is sticky, you're not going to want to eat it anyway; it will be covered with dog hair. We have grandkids who don't like to share, so our rule is that if it is not yours, don't touch it without asking the owner first. They'll grab another kid's toy but holler if anyone touches theirs, hence the rule. They do a pretty good job of following it most of the time now.

In my house, if something falls on the floor, you might as well kiss it goodbye. We have 2 dogs that will follow close to you when you have food just for that reason. Even then if they are lucky, I don't want them eating food off the floor. I mean who really wants dog hair with your food. Now when I'm out of the room, I really don't know if they eat food they drop or not. I honestly hope that they don't for fear of eating hair, ewww.

When my daughter was a toddler she would eat things that dropped on the floor. I taught her about the *5 second rule*. When she was a toddler that was the only way we could keep her from eating thing that were there any longer. We made a *big* deal out of it. And now she is a mother of her own child. She is teaching my grandson, the same way we taught her. Why do children feel that if it is on the floor, it is okay to eat, but if it is on a plate it is yucky? LOL

We call it a 5 second rule also, but if it's something wet, has sauce or gravy on it, it goes right in the trash. If a cookie drops on the floor and is picked right up, my boys will eat it. Without what we call the 5 second rule, my youngest would throw anything he didn't want to eat on the ground, so he could get out of eating it. Of course if the floors are filthy, even a half-second rule wouldn't matter...in the garbage it would go!

Yes the 5 second rule applys to my boys and they are in their 20's even if they drop something on the ground sometimes they will still pick it up and eat it. LOL

I have heard this "rule" before, and frankly I don't think it is a good one - I doubt that the bacteria are aware of the rule and do not think they would hesitate to jump on board in an instant, even if it were only 1 second, they have no respect for the rules, lol. my son does obey my rules, I know this because he was away at boarding school last year and he called me for permission to go against a rule I had given him because in the situation with his roommate it was difficult to follow. my girls on the other hand are very disobedient, and that includes even in front of me... guess they can be like the bacteria in some ways ---- little to no respect :(

It's a bit of a strange rule.I mean everything that falls on the ground even if it's for less than a second i wouldn't want my children to eat it. Well i don't have kids yet but i know i wouldn't make ridiculous rules.Some things are obvious and shouldn't be rules.

My mother used to impose that on us when we were kids! I can't believe that other people are doing that too! My opinion on that is that there is no difference of time whether how long it is on the ground. The thing is that it touched the ground already and it is already dirty.

I never pick anything up and eat it, but a coworker explained the 5 second rule to me, and apparently germs don't get to the food if you pick it up within 5 seconds' time... anyway, I don't ever pick it up! =)

You should try to find the episode of MythBusters where they test that theory. Supposedly it can be up to 30 secs or five minutes. As long as it's not on a dirty floor it's supposed to be okay to pick it up.

i say if its longer than 5 seconds its not good to eat.