Let Them Eat Dirt is a new parenting book written not by child psychologists, but by two microbiologists, Marie-Claire Arrieta and Brett Finlay. Their aim is to encourage parents to ease up on hygiene. Children, they say, should be outside more, playing in the mud and coming into contact with the natural world.
The scientists base their advice on research about microbes in the human gut. While our ability to destroy harmful microbes with antibiotics, sanitation and vaccines has brought about a revolution in the treatment of infectious diseases, these procedures are not discriminative, so the beneficial microbes are also destroyed – the ones that allow our immune system to develop.
It would take considerable medical expertise to know whether Arrieta and Finlay’s hypothesis is correct, but the sound scientific evidence they cite makes it at least worthy of careful consideration. Furthermore, their argument is appealing psychologically, for the following reasons:
– Spending time outside encourages the production of endorphins, our natural painkillers that trigger feelings of wellbeing.
– Being outdoors helps set our biological clock and promotes more restful sleep.
More takeaway points from this research at Telegraph Health & Fitness