I’ve always watched in horror as children push handfuls of soil into their mouths while their parents turn a blind eye to their child’s new habit. The hypochondriac in me has always thought about what dangers lurk in the mud and whether they could do a child more harm than good. However could a new study by Cornell University in New York, featured in the Daily Mail, which says that eating mud or clay might even be good for children’s stomachs, be about to prove me wrong?According to the study, eating dirt may act as a shield against ingested parasites and plant toxins, as well as provide nutrients that children or adults lack such as iron, zinc or calcium. Who knew?

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After writing several articles over the past few years on our ‘cotton wool culture’ and increasing aversion to risk, seeing some Venezuelan children go out hunting on the BBC documentary Human Planet did make me chuckle.

In the episode, entitled Trees, the children, of whom all look no older than ten, go wandering off into the jungle, without adult supervision, in search of tarantulas that they plan to eat for dinner.

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Since my in-laws came to stay, previously unseen dangers have started lurking everywhere my toddler ventures. Could she bang her head on the table? Might she hit her fingers while playing with the hammer block?  Read More »