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

The official recommendation from the nurse-midwives who advise Swedish parents on an ongoing basis until their child starts school is to give young babies full baths just once a week.

Older children get baths or showers on an as-needed basis, ranging from every night in the summer if they’ve gotten dirty while playing outside to two or three times a week if they’re not visibly filthy.

In the US, on the other hand, the virtue of cleanliness is so ingrained that newborn babies are sometimes bathed by nurses at the hospital within hours of being born, before they’ve even had a chance to latch onto their mother’s breast, even though research has shown that the waxy coating that covers the baby’s body in fact acts like a moisturizer and natural cleanser that helps ward off infection.

Exposure to microbes is not the only way children can benefit from messy play in nature—it’s also the ultimate sensory experience.

This is important because good sensory integration—i.e., our ability to process and organize the information that we get through our senses—means that our body and brain are functioning at their optimal level.

Nature looks and acts differently depending on the season and the weather, and in order to understand these changes, you need to experience them firsthand. Plus, different types of weather inspire different types of play.

If possible, reserve a spot in the backyard where your child is allowed to dig in the dirt or create a simple “mud kitchen” with some old pots, pans, cups, and other kitchen utensils.

Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World, by B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta. Algonquin Books, 2016.

Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry), by Lenore Skenazy. Jossey-Bass, 2010.

Unplugged: 15 Steps to Disconnect from Technology and Reconnect with Nature, Yourself, Friends, and Family, by Jason Runkel Sperling. Kindle Edition, 2016.

Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life, by Richard Louv. Algonquin Books, 2016.