In today's age of mobiles, iPads, cable TV, PlayStation, Facebook and YouTube, more and more children are losing their contact with the natural world, and this is having a huge impact on their health and development 

Then there's the fact that children's time is much more pressured than it once was. Spare time must be spent constructively: after-school activities, coaching, organised sports – no time for kicking your heels outdoors. Except kids never did kick their heels. We used to be on our own and with our friends all the time, from the age of about eight, "Climbing trees, building dens, collecting birds' eggs and frogspawn. Today, parents don't even want their kids to get dirty."

As a parent we sometimes grow overprotective of our children, but could messing around in the mud or getting dirty and a little hurt is good for the growth or development of our children?????

And the various medical researches say, YES.

Playing in the soil may provide more than just good unclean fun for our little ones. Our overemphasis on cleanliness may block our exposure to the beneficial bugs. 

The trillions of microorganisms that live inside us, including the ones we pick up from our environment, are doing something important to us.

Our microbiome is the community of microbes that live in and on us. They’re in our bowel, on our skin, our lungs, our genital tract, and our bladder. Some are bacteria, some are viruses, and some fungi. We can think of the microbiome as an ecosystem that lives in an environment called “us.”There are also some vitamins that only bacteria can make, like Vitamin B components, and so having diversity in our microbiome helps us prevent nutrient deficiencies.

Kids, especially those younger than 8 years old, are less coordinated and have slower reaction times than adults because they are still growing and developing. ... As kids grow bigger and stronger, the potential for injury increases, largely because of the amount of force involved.

But again a protective parent in us start detecting the terms of play and deprive children of free-play. Getting hurt teaches us to calculate the risk factor, improves our reflexes, to deal with the pain. coordination, fearlessness, built a team spirit and also helps you grow physically/emotionally/mentally stronger.

In short, playing in mud makes you happier, healthier and stronger. Science shows that today's sanitised world is contributing to increased levels of childhood allergies and asthma. Exposure to dirt and germs works to prime a child's immune system to prevent allergies.

PARENT NAME: ANJALI PANJWANI

STUDENT NAME: LAKSHYA PANJWANI 6B CBSE