Children handleing chicks

What are the chances that my children will get sick(staph-e-coli-salmonilla)from holding our new chicks? The chicks are from McMurrary Hatchery and are 3 days old now. Is it common for them to carry and pass things on to children?

I personally believe that people who have told me "chickens make them sick" are people who are careless about cleaning after being around their chickens. Always wash well with soap and water when done. You can use anti-bacterial soap, but it isn't really necessary, unless you have been mucking chicken poo. This is a good idea for everyone handling chicks and chickens.

No kissing chickens, but holding and petting is fine. It is also better that children have adult supervision around the chickens; better for the chicks/chickens as well as the children.

If they get chicken poo on their boots or shoes (a separate pair for working with chickens is a great idea for the whole family), put them into white vinegar or bleach/water or oxine ah/water to disinfect.

Change clothes if they get chicken poo on them. They can be soaked in white vinegar and water before washing if you want. I just usually add 1/4 cup of white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide to the wash.

We and our grandkids have never gotten sick from handling the chicks or adult chickens and we always wash up immediately when done.


edited: now if I could just type

My girlfriend has three children ranging from four to nine years old. I had to go on a business trip when my chicks first arrived so they watched my 8 chicks (along with their 17) for the first two weeks. They checked on them hourly, and held them, patted them, fed them, etc. The only thing that came from that?
Social chickens.
Those girls are the sweetest they have ever had, and I LOVE that I can go into the coop and the girls fight to see who can sit on my lap, shoulders, or head

I am a newbie but my daughter held the chicks with no problems....what I did was I had a bottle of hand santizer sitting right next to the pen and after the kids touched the chicks i would squirt thier hands incase they did not was well after holding or a thumb went in the mouth before it was washed...

for of health of my chicks as well as my kids before anyone touched a chick we ALL washed our hands before too

Thank you. We already do lots of hand washing! So I think we should be safe. I cant wait to see what breeds we have. We have 28 chicks. 1 is blind and not eting well so we think she will die. 1 has some kind of lump between her legs (maybe unabsorbed yolk sac) but she eats, drinks, poos fine. I did tons of reading about it and still have no idea whats wrong with her. Only time will tell I guess. We are having a great time with our first flock of chicks!

They will be fine. I grew up around chickens and I never got sick. I would just make sure that after handling the chickens, they wash their hands with soap, and dont put their fingers in their mouth.

In all reality, your children are about a billion times more likely to get seriously ill from their friends. My figure, of course, is a rough estimate
Enjoy your chicks!

My sister was completely parniod about this (but has no problem letting them play on McDonalds playground and not wash their hands after, they always come down with something a few days later).
My chicks came from McMurray about 2 weeks ago and the kids hold them about 8 times a day (getting very social chickens) we haven't had any problems.