Should I Let Kids Eat Boogers?
The Soccer Mom blog post informs parents that kids can probably pick their noses. And then eat their boogers. The post says that eating boogers is actually good for kids because nose-picking / eating boogers leads to a happier, healthier life .
So maybe they are happier because they are allowed to lose their temper by poking and pushing as they see fit. But healthier? “This must be the delusion of a mother desperately trying to justify a bad habit of her child,” I thought. But after further digging (pun intended), there appear to be scientists who support the theory that booger consumption is a natural way to boost the immune system.
The Canadian biochemist and professor is widely cited in the media, including in this CBC News article , to support this disgusting habit:
“Can eating pathogens trapped in mucus teach your immune system what it is surrounded by?” is a hypothesis that Scott Napper proposed to his students.
Napper noted that snot tastes sweet, and this could be a signal for the body to consume and receive information for the immune system.
The idea is that exposing our bodies to microbes trapped in our nasal mucus strengthens the body’s immune system, acting as a kind of vaccination against them. Of course, we must take into account that children also put potentially infected fingers in their mouths, so the immune system has something to fight with.
One father embarked on a deep exploratory journey to determine if there was any research being done to confirm this theory, and for the most part ended up empty-handed. He wrote for Fatherly that one physician – Gary Fried, director of general pediatrics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health – had (partly) given the go-ahead:
Bottom line: it’s safe. However, children who pick their nose more often are at a higher risk of nosebleeds.
I originally wanted to accept this. I want to give children the freedom to choose what they want. But I think all the time about describing the taste of the ” sweet, almost sweet ” booger that I read, and it makes me shudder. I believe that children should form their immunity in the old fashioned way: by coughing and sneezing at classmates.
But I’m not an expert, so I also went to a real doctor for advice. Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, head of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said: “There is no direct evidence, but in general we believe that exposure to bacteria is good for children.”
Another pediatrician we asked (who turns out to be the pediatrician of Offspring editor Michelle Wu and asked us not to mention her name) says: “I believe in the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ which says that children who are exposed to various environmental factors – dirt, bacteria, viruses, fungi – when they are young, their immune systems will be more resilient as they get older. I wouldn’t encourage a child to eat their boogers or build up bacteria, but I don’t think we’re protecting them from bubbles. “
Conclusion: I thought it was nuts, but it might be a hack.