My all time favorite overheard snippet of a conversation happened when I was riding the Tube in London years ago.
I was sitting across from a mother and pre-school age boy.
The boy looked at her intently and asked,

“Mummy what do burrrrds eat?”
“Oh. Worms and bits of things.”
“But mummy!? Why con’t weeeee eat worrrms?
“Because they would make you quite ill.”

That was it. Just a simple little exchange. But so cute, proper and oh so British that it left an indelible mark.

Well Jane Brody’s recent article in the NYT states information quite the contrary to that little boy’s mum. “Babies Know: A Little Dirt is Good for You.”

It turns out not all worms would make you quite ill. In fact some can even boost your immunity. (Mind you they’re talking micro-organism type of worms not the earthwormy type of worms. Not that eating earthwormy worms would necessarily make you quite ill - but yuk! - and I digress.)

The read the article over lunch and it made me feel a little better about all of the times my kids have eaten hairy Cheerios off the carpet or shoveled a mouthful of garden dirt in their mouth.

At the same time it did make me put down my Panini.

Maybe I’ll finish it later…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Family Life, Health, Related Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.