There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)

by Linda Åkeson McGurk

Of course, nobody’s suggesting that we should go back to the days of bathing once a year, drinking filthy water, and dying from simple, treatable illnesses. Vaccinations, antibiotics, and the improvements in sanitation and personal hygiene in the industrialized world have been key to curbing outbreaks of infectious diseases and have saved a lot of lives. Unfortunately, beneficial microbes were the unintended casualty of this progress. How to bring them back in an age when most people don’t have a barn with farm animals conveniently located in their backyard is a question that vexes scientists. Our relationship with parasites, bacteria, and viruses is complicated to say the least, and researchers don’t necessarily know what type of dirt can help protect us against asthma and allergies. But if being too far removed from nature is the main reason for the epidemic, as so many scientists seem to believe, one easy way to support children’s health and strengthen their immune system could simply be to let them play outside as much as possible and not panic if they sample a clump of dirt or lick an earthworm. The ick factor may be high, and for small children rocks and other small loose parts can be a choking hazard, but the risk of them getting sick from such things is extremely low.