Your baby is eating dirt on the floor? It is good for them!

Last week, I wrote a post about the reason why babies putt everything in their mouths. I was talking about that with a friend who asked me “Do you know the theory that babies put things in their mouth on purpose (not consciously obviously), to help build their immune system?” …no, I didn’t know that.

Many years ago, I was raised in a country environment, as a youngster I was eating dirt, playing in the mud and climbing trees. My mum always believed that this was good for us, thats they way it was in those days, but now we are surrounded by advertising that tells us to “Clean and disinfect everything to protect your family”, “kills 99,99% of germs” ect… Does your baby actually need that or should we let them play in the mud and let them eat “dirty things”…

We all believe that sight, hearing, touch and scent are stronger tools for a baby to discover their environment than putting things in their mouth. So maybe this strange and quite disgusting action could be more than just curiosity?

The theory is that babies are responding to natural instinct by putting objects from their surroundings in their mouths. This way, the internal body gets to know the environment that the baby is living in and is exposed to millions of bacteria and viruses. Normally as adults, our bodies recognise and fight these germs, but for your new baby, it is another story. Their immune system is underdeveloped and needs some training to be able to be as efficient as yours. So by being exposed to all these germs, their immune system will identify, attack and learn to eliminate them. It will take on average 5 to 7 years for their immune system to develop fully. Fever, running nose and coughs are all signs of your baby fighting bacteria and virus.

All these bacteria, viruses and worms are good for your baby! They actually develop an healthy immune system. When I first read “worms”, I had a weird smile on my face. But many studies have demonstrated that worms can actually “helps to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.” Mary Ruebush (a microbiology and immunology instructor) wrote a book : “Why Dirt Is Good”. She said : “Children raised in an ultra-clean environment are not being exposed to organisms that help them develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits".

Lately, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis and other allergies have risen in developed countries and the eradication of worms in these areas of the world could possibly be a reason for it. Worms (harmless for well-nourished people) have a really strong impact on regulating the immune system response.So there we go, protecting our children from every germs possible is maybe not as good as what big advertising agencies would like us to believe…

What should you do then? Encourage them to eat what they found on the ground? It's not be as black and white as that because some rules are still really important, such as washing your hands before eating, after changing a diaper, after being to the bathroom ect… But let’s let them play outside in the mud (thank you for the laundry you will say!)and let’s not panic when your 6 month old put his daddy’s shoe in his mouth! You can keep your baby safe by helping their immune system to develop by  exposing them to the world, clean or dirty!

What do you think? We would to hear your opinion on that subject. Thank you to read this post, I hope you enjoyed it!