Kids, Pets, and Parasites: The Hidden Health Risk in Your Backyard
A backyard should feel like the safest place a family has. The reason is simple: children run barefoot across the grass, dogs bound after tennis balls, and parents relax knowing everyone is close to home. But that same yard can quietly harbor a health risk that most families never think about: parasites hiding in soil contaminated by dog waste.
How Dog Waste Puts Kids at Risk
Dog feces can carry several parasites that pose a real threat to children, including roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that children can develop toxocariasis when they ingest soil contaminated with the eggs of dog or cat roundworms, often by accident during ordinary play. Cutaneous larva migrans poses a similar risk, since hookworm larvae in contaminated soil can penetrate bare skin when a child walks or plays barefoot in the yard.
These infections are not rare curiosities.
Roundworm eggs can survive in soil for years, so a yard that once had contaminated waste in it may continue to pose a risk long after the original mess has been cleaned up. Children face a higher risk than adults for two straightforward reasons.
First, they spend far more time close to the ground, whether crawling, sitting, or playing in the dirt.
Second, they are far more likely to put their hands, toys, or even soil itself into their mouths without thinking twice about it.
Why Sandboxes and Play Areas Carry Extra Risk
Sandboxes, garden beds, and shaded corners of the yard deserve particular attention, since dogs often favor these same soft, cool spots to relieve themselves. When a sandbox doubles as a bathroom stop, it becomes an easy path for parasites to reach a child directly. Even a yard that looks perfectly clean can still carry lingering parasite eggs beneath the surface, since waste that sat on the ground for even a short time can leave contamination behind well after it has been picked up.
Reducing the Dog Waste Risk in Your Yard
Consistent, thorough waste removal is the most effective way for families to protect their children from this risk.
A dog owner should pick up waste as soon as possible after it appears, since the sooner it leaves the yard, the less time it has to contaminate the surrounding soil. Regular deworming, recommended by a veterinarian, also lowers the amount of parasite eggs a dog can shed in the first place. Keeping dogs away from sandboxes and garden beds, and teaching kids to wash their hands after outdoor play, both add extra layers of protection.
The disposal method matters just as much as the pickup routine. Bagging waste and setting it aside in a trash can outdoors still leaves a window where parasites can spread if a bag tears or a bin gets knocked over. Backyard digesters bury the problem rather than removing it, and the waste and any parasite eggs it carries can remain in that same patch of ground for a long time as it slowly breaks down.
WasteAway takes a different approach. Instead of storing waste in the yard in any form, WasteAway connects directly to a home's sewer line and sends waste to a treatment facility built to handle it safely. Nothing lingers in the yard, nothing sits in a bin waiting for trash day, and nothing gets buried where a curious child might later dig.
For families who want their yard to stay a genuinely safe place for their kids to play, removing the waste entirely offers real peace of mind that bagging or burying simply cannot match.
Every family wants a yard where the biggest risk is a skinned knee, not a parasite exposure. A consistent cleanup routine paired with a disposal system that removes waste completely, rather than storing or burying it, gives parents one less thing to worry about every time their kids head outside to play.
Ready to give your family a cleaner, safer yard? Check out the WasteAway Installation Guide to see how simple it is to get started.
