Let them eat dirt....

Remember when our children used a soother?  Well some of our children that is.  I know two of my three children did.  I did as my mother did, if the soother fell out of the child's mouth and onto the floor I would pick it up put it in my mouth to rinse it off and back into the child's mouth it would go.  I know "Gross", but we did it and I never thought anything of it.  The way I looked at it was I would rinse it off in my mouth for my child and as far as me putting it in my mouth then the child's...well I figure I birthed the child they have part of me anyhow so what the heck. It's kinda of like one of those old wives tales.  Now of course if the soother had dropped into some dirt or something I would find the closest water give it a quick rinse and back into my child's mouth it would go.  No boiling or sterilizing was going on here. Again, for some of you might think that to be gross.  To me it just seemed natural, and now, in hind sight I see I was helping build my child's immunity.

I find a lot of parents now days try to protect their child from the world around them.  So much so that when they think they are doing their child a favour by not allowing them to explore their world they are actually doing them a disservice.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with colitis.  One of the things I did when I was diagnosed was to find out as much as I could about the disease and as a result I started another blog on Crohn's and Colitis.  With this I joined a Facebook group called "Badgut.org"  It's the Gastrointestinal Society of Canada, which is a nonprofit organization that provides a wealth of knowledge to folks who suffer from all kinds of gastrointestinal problems like IBS, IBD, GERD,Colitis, Crohn's and the likes.  Oh my look at all those acronyms.  The other day I was surfing Facebook and I noticed that they had made a post about farm animals and IBD(Irritable Bowel disease).  This article talked about the importance of exposing our children to farm animals and how it helps build their immunity. http://www.badgut.org/information-centre/animal-exposure-reduces-the-risk-of-developing-ibd.html  The article is titled "Animal exposure reduces the risk of developing IBD".  I was very curious to read this article to see what it had to say.  As it turns out I wasn't far off from what I thought.  I hope you give it a read.

Recently my husband and I travelled back east for our grand-daughters christening.  It was a lovely visit. However, there is a but in this story.  My step-daughter is very particular about NOT allowing her daughter to be exposed to germs.  Case in point, you are not even allowed to hold the child unless you wash your hands, there is definitely minimal floor crawling going on as the child is not allowed to touch anything dirty.  It was very interesting to observe.  My husband and I discussed this and how we felt our daughter was maybe doing her daughter a disservice by not allowing her to explore her world, not allowing her to be exposed to natural allergens in order to help her build her own healthy immunity. Natural immunity is so very important, so when I saw the article that I mentioned above I posted it on my Facebook page hoping that my step-daughter would read it. 

We need to allow our little one's an opportunity to explore and not keep them in a bubble. It's funny, I remember my mom telling me stories about my sister always eating dirt I didn't hear of it doing her any harm.  Of course it's everything in moderation and common sense does play a role.

As Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake" I say let them "eat dirt"

Food for thought.