Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy NEws

Daycare Rewilded Its Yard And Children Got Healthier Immediately

A groundbreaking study at Humpula daycare center in Lahti, Finland showed that when 75 children were exposed to nature-like elements five times a week, their body’s microbes diversified dramatically and offered powerful protection against diseases transmitted through the immune system. The study published in Science Advances in 2021 found that children who got down and dirty in rewilded daycare yards had lower levels of Clostridium bacteria linked with inflammatory bowel disease, higher levels of protective T cells in their blood, and fewer infectious disease causing Streptococcus bacteria on their skin. The results were so impressive that Finland’s Natural Resources Institute is now launching a nationwide survey of 43 daycares compared to the original sample of just 75 children, measuring how increased microbial exposure changes children’s skin, gut, and oral microbiomes.

The Finnish government awarded one million euros in grants to 43 daycare centers specifically for adding garden space, planter boxes, compost heaps, and other natural features to their properties based on the original study’s remarkable findings. Humpula daycare went all in on the concept, substituting its grass garden for a giant 107 square foot section of actual forest floor that’s 12 inches deep and pre loaded with wild lingonberry and blueberry seeds, plus bugs, mosses, lichen, and trillions of beneficial microbes. The daycare now boasts a vegetable patch using compost to provide dirt covered healthy vegetables for the center’s kitchen, and five year olds enthusiastically bake mud and sand chocolate cakes as part of their daily play. Scientists will collect hair, saliva, and stool samples along with parent questionnaires about infectious diseases to robustly measure how a wilder daycare impacts children’s immune health nationwide. If this profile can be replicated across Finland, a massive financial and health burden could be lifted from the national community, proving that sometimes the best medicine for children is simply letting them play in the dirt.

PrevPreviousThese Children Are Building Businesses And Helping Their Community
NextThis Simple Act Of Kindness For A Snake Goes ViralNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Communities Across America Are Banning AI Data Centers And The Number Just Jumped From 8 To 78

May 10, 2026

According to the U.S. Data Center Moratorium Tracker, communities across the country have been pushing back against the rapid expansion of AI data centers with growing success, with the number of active bans and moratoriums jumping from just 8 in May 2025 to 78 today, including 50 active restrictions and

Read More
Happy News

An Alaska Animal Shelter Lets You Borrow A Dog For 48 Hours And It Is Leading To More Adoptions

May 10, 2026

The Anchorage Animal Care and Control shelter in Alaska launched a program in spring 2025 called Tails on Trails that has since become one of the most talked-about shelter initiatives in the country, pairing volunteers with a shelter dog for 48 hours and sending them out to explore the trails

Read More
Happy News

Scientists Gave Monkeys A Reward-Free Video Game And They Played Nearly 100 Rounds Anyway

May 10, 2026

Researchers at Kyoto University’s Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior set out to test whether curiosity in Japanese macaques follows the same pattern observed in humans, and what they found should resonate with anyone who has ever gone down a late-night internet rabbit hole for no practical reason

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.