Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World

Product Description

In the two hundred years since we discovered that microbes cause infectious diseases, we've battled to keep them under control. But a recent explosion of scientific knowledge has led to undeniable evidence that early exposure to these organisms is beneficial to our children's well-being. Our modern lifestyle, with its emphasis on hyper-cleanliness, is having a negative effect on our children's lifelong health. In this engaging and important book, microbiologists B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta explain how the trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies influence childhood development and why an imbalance in those microbes can lead to obesity, diabetes and asthma, among other chronic conditions. Offering practical advice from conception through to pregnancy and beyond on what parents can do to impact their children's health - from natural childbirth and breastfeeding to the benefits of antibiotics and vaccinations - this invaluable guide will help you to nurture stronger, more resilient and healthier children.In the two hundred years since we discovered that microbes cause infectious diseases, we've battled to keep them under control. But a recent explosion of scientific knowledge has led to undeniable evidence that early exposure to these organisms is beneficial to our children's well-being. Our modern lifestyle, with its emphasis on hyper-cleanliness, is having a negative effect on our children's lifelong health. In this engaging and important book, microbiologists B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta explain how the trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies influence childhood development and why an imbalance in those microbes can lead to obesity, diabetes and asthma, among other chronic conditions. Offering practical advice from conception through to pregnancy and beyond on what parents can do to impact their children's health - from natural childbirth and breastfeeding to the benefits of antibiotics and vaccinations - this invaluable guide will help you to nurture stronger, more resilient and healthier children.
B. Brett Finlay (Author) B. Brett Finlay, PhD, is Professor of Microbiology at the University of British Columbia and has published over four hundred and fifty articles on microbes and how bacterial infections work. A founder of the biotech companies Inimex, Vedanta, and Microbiome Insights, Brett is Officer of the Order of Canada - the highest Canadian civilian recognition. He lives in Vancouver, BC, with his wife, who is a pediatrician, and has two grown children. Marie-Claire Arrieta (Author) Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD, has been studying how intestinal alterations lead to several immune diseases since 2007, combining her knowledge of microbes and immunology to lead a major clinical study on the role of the microbiota in asthma. A mother of two, Arrieta is a tireless advocate of using scientific knowledge to improve the health of children.