Of course it has germs... its in a slobbering babies mouth all day... probably got cooties too...

Good lord people. THERE ARE GERMS ON THOSE?? Whou would have thought that, without a _STUDY_ !! AND! Since WOAI wont let me comment on the I35/TOLL Road test, the writer misses the point. The TOLL ROAD Is not for GOING to Austin, it's for BY-PASSING the Hippies!

i gagged in a restaurant once when i saw a kid drop his binkie on the floor of the joint, and the mom stuck it in her mouth to "clean" it then jammed it in jr's mouth....*GAG

You’re right, @camidawg, and there are some schools of thought that exposure to various bacteria and viruses when your young helps to toughen up your immune system. I do have to say, however, that only a dope would pick up a binkie off the floor or ground and stick it in a kids mouth. Not saying his was always pristine, but my son’s was pinned to his clothes on a ribbon, and every day he got a fresh one. The old one was literally boiled after being washed. Of course that’s back when we mixed formula and washed baby bottles, and used cloth diapers. Speaking of diapers, he never had diaper rash even once. I really hate the hypocritical folks who claim to be “green” and buy nasty cloth bags at HEB to carry their food in, but put “disposable” diapers on junior’s butt. Those things take 75 years to decompose in our landfills, and the plastic grocery bags take 6 months. Swallowing camels and choking on gnats.

Can I just point out that growing up we were exposed to everything short of nuclear radiation---scratch that, standing in front of the glass of those earlier microwaves watching your food---and we turned out just fine....except for Carmen/Dodie/JudgmentDay commentors...they might have been stricken by infant bacteria.