Family & Relationships
Algonquin Books
September 20, 2016
304
LET THEM EAT DIRT: Saving Your Child from an Over sanitized World
As far as I can remember, most of my childhood was spent playing with dirt. Afterschool me and my siblings would go out in the backyard and play with dirt. We would mix it with water and make figurines out of the mud. It was the best time of the day. By the time we would be called in for snacks, we were mostly covered in mud ….. on the clothes, hands, arms, hair, feet…..
Were my parents worried?….Nopes
Were we told NOT to play in mud?….Absolutely
Did we listen?…..Nopes
Did we get a bath later?…..Scrubbed to the last finger nail
Most importantly…..Did we get sick???
No!
I was really attracted to the title of the book and wanted to find out how the author defends that playing or more importantly eating dirt does not make you sick.
This is a perfect book for parents, teachers or anyone who plans to have a baby in the future and wants to educate themselves with what is Human Microbiota.
With the various antibiotics, vaccines, hand sanitizers and other techniques there has been a decrease in the spread of diseases and surely human life span has increased but on the other hand we are seeing surge in allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, autism. The author tries to relate the increase in these diseases to over sanitization and a loss of good bacteria.
There is a deep focus on pregnancy, delivery and breast-feeding and even if you are past that stage this book helps to understand why are kids so prone to allergies now days.
At the end of each chapter are important do’s and don’ts which make the takeaway from each chapter really easy.
There are a lot of reputations in the book which at times becomes boring. Also if you have already read a bit about microbiome, then there is nothing new in this book. You will find it like a refresher course.
Overall I think the authors did a fantastic job in explaining the problem, I really wished that they would have provided some practical steps which one could readily upon completion of the book. Anyways, I still think it is a good informative read and a nice collection to your health library.