How to disgust children

In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how breast milk varies during the day, how breastfeeding affects the milk microbiome, and how the age at which a child gets their first smartphone influences their later mental health. We then discuss disgust - what it is, why it’s good, and when it can be bad. We talk about how we can help children set up healthy levels of disgust. Finally, we talk about how the age at which a child walks affects their long-term hip health.

For more information on setting children up for a healthy level of disgust - try this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/should-we-avoid-disgusting-children

This episode mentions these articles:

It also mentions Greg’s beautiful-bug Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgregdickens/

Topics covered

* How does breast milk vary over the day?

* How does the age at which a child gets a smartphone influence their mental health?

* What is disgust and why is it needed?

* How can we set children up for healthy levels of disgust?

* How does the age at which a child walks affect their hip development?

These other podcast episodes cover overlapping topics

Notes

Day/night fluctuations of breast milk bioactive factors and microbiome: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1618784/full

Feeding Expressed Breast Milk Alters the Microbial Network of Breast Milk and Increases Breast Milk Microbiome Diversity over Time: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/13/1/12

Protecting the Developing Mind in a Digital Age: A Global Policy Imperative: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19452829.2025.2518313#d1e383

Age at Onset of Walking in Infancy Is Associated With Hip Shape in Early Old Age: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6446733/