Let Them Eat Dirt

“A must-read for parents, teachers and any healthcare provider for children, Let Them Eat Dirt takes you inside the inside tract of a child’s gut, and shows you how to give kids the best immune start early in life.” —William Sears, MD, coauthor of The Baby Book

“I loved this book.” —Dr. Richard Besser, Chief Health and Medical Editor at ABC News

“With the quiet weight of their authority, pioneer researchers Brett Finlay and Claire Arrieta help parents to understand the real nature of microbes, and then to act to improve their children's health.” —Martin Blaser, author of Missing Microbes

“This book might change your perspective on real cleanliness . . . and along the way help you to raise healthier kids.” —Giulia Enders, author of Gut

“As a parent and a microbiologist, I appreciated the up-to-date and actionable science that Let Them Eat Dirt highlights, including the groundbreaking work conducted in the authors’ own lab. As a Professor of Pediatrics, I appreciated the accessible format and writing style that makes this wealth of information and its limitations easy to understand for the increasing crowd parents who are concerned about their children and their growing microbiomes. Let Them Eat Dirt gives an entertaining, engaging and accurate view of what we're discovering about the microbiome and why it matters for you and your children." —Rob Knight, Professor of Pediatrics and Computer Science Engineering, and Director, Center for Microbiome Innovation, UC San Diego, and author of Follow Your Gut: The Enormous Impact of Tiny Microbes

“What a triumph. This book should be read by every pregnant woman, every parent, every pediatrician. It's not just a great read but terribly important.” —Professor Margaret McFall-Ngai, Member of the National Academy of Sciences and Director of Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii.

“Great book! Very clear, down to earth, and interesting; it reads like a story! Let Them Eat Dirt takes an important and complex subject and makes it less scary.” —Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator,  Host-microbiome Interaction Research Group at the Weizmann Institute of Science and Senior Fellow, Canadian Institute For Advanced Research

 “Solid, easily assimilated evidence showing how microbes are an integral part of a child's healthy life.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Finlay and Arrieta explain, in illuminating detail, the importance of the gut microbiome…They hope to restore the powerful benefits of microbe transfer from the environment to the young child, benefits lost as a side effect of efforts to reduce infectious disease risk and of cultural attitudes that conflate dirt with disease….The focus on practical choices before and during birth makes this book a good resource for expectant parents.” —Publishers Weekly