[Sharlin]

Kids should be allowed to eat dirt. They should be exposed to rich, biodiverse environments, not just asphalt, rubber safety mats or impoverished monocultural lawns (although the latter are better than nothing, at least unless they're chock full of pesticides and herbicides…) Adults should, too, for that matter.

[jajko]

We did that. Not letting them eat big chunks of dirt or mud, but not being too strict with clean hands, picking up food from floor etc. And yes few times for some reason they chugged in some small piece of outright dirt.

Its much easier when the amount of nasty diseases they can get from dirty hands is minimal on western world, compared to many parts of 3rd world countries with next to 0 sanitation and usually no sewage separation.

No allergies so far but its too early to tell.

[ThatMedicIsASpy]

At my last wedding kids were competing in who can get the highest/most: licking the windows

[jfengel]

In French, "licking the windows" means window shopping (looking without buying).

Sounds like the kids were having more fun though.

[lostlogin]

How many weddings have you had?

[croissants]

At least in moderately urban parks in the USA, one complicating factor is that a lot of the dirt has dog poop scattered on top.

[bitshiftfaced]

The CDC advises not to let small children play directly in dirt patches because of the lead risk.

[Sharlin]

Not a problem in these parts I don't think, except possibly on old industrial lots and similar. Though as a child I did used to live in a brownfield area that was in the middle of development – there was a lot of very contaminated earth and other hazardous things that of course invited kids to explore. Thankfully I was already past the dirt-eating phase.