Why Dirt is Especially Important for Babies
The natural organisms in dirt serve an important purpose for people of all ages, but babies have a specific and additional need for interaction with dirt.
Breast milk lacks Iron and with important reason. Pathogens like E.Coli (which can cause severe digestive problems in newborns) needs Iron to thrive, as do other pathogens. These low iron levels can help protect newborns from these bacteria.
Around 6 months, a baby’s need for Iron and other nutrients increases, but breast milk doesn’t increase its levels of these nutrients and with good reason. At this stage in life, babies spend more time on the ground. In the past, this meant they spent more time interacting with dirt, which is a good source of Iron and minerals like Zinc, magnesium, etc.
As Science of Mom explains:
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“Most babies are born with enough iron stores to meet their needs for about the first 6 months of life [1].
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Breast milk contains very little iron (~0.35 mg/liter). The Institute of Medicine recommends that infants 6-12 months old get 11 mg of iron per day [1]. By this age, most babies’ iron stores have been depleted, so this iron needs to come from complementary foods, in addition to breast milk or formula. If you try to meet your infant’s iron requirement on breast milk alone, she would have to consume between 4 and 13 liters of breast milk per day, depending on your baby’s efficiency of iron absorption from breast milk (estimates range from 15-50% absorption). Most exclusively breastfed babies don’t consume much more than 1 liter of milk per day.
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Iron deficiency during infancy increases the risk of cognitive, motor, and behavioral deficits that may last into the teens, even with iron treatment. Specific deficits that have been identified include impaired motor development at 18 months [2], mental retardation at 10 years old [3], increased need to repeat a grade, and increased behavioral and attention problems [4]. When I hear parents say that they declined the test for anemia at their baby’s 9 or 12-month check-up, I have to assume that they don’t know how serious iron deficiency can be for their child’s future.”
So, how do we get dirty!
For kids that’s an easy one. Just let them play in it, including crawling babies. Just make sure it’s not dirt covered with chemicals! for us adults, consuming foods that rich in probiotics such as water kefir, kombucha or homemade sauerkraut.
Source: wellnessmama
