The Surprising Healing Qualities ... of Dirt

[Warpy]

1. I know when I was a kid, we'd make a paste of spit and dirt and put it right onto bee stings.

The soil was often heavy clay and as it dried, it probably sucked some of the venom out. I know we were all convinced of the healing properties of dirt when it came to stings. Cuts and scrapes, not so much.

Toddlers pick up nasty things off the ground and shove them right into their mouths. This is likely pure instinct and exposes them to hundreds of different bugs at a time. They survive and the exposure helps to strengthen their immune systems.

There's such a thing as keeping it too clean. It's not good for kids to be raised in a sterile, hothouse environment. They need to be germ magnets and they need to ingest nasty things so their immune systems will build up a library of immunity, something that will keep them healthy as adults.

Just make sure those vaccines are up to date so the viruses won't have a chance.