When my daughter was in the NICU, I was fortunate enough to take a couple of parenting courses with the nurses who held them at the hospital. Most of them had been my daughter’s nurse at one point or another and knew my husband and me. They gave us such wonderful advice, and one recurring theme was to include fresh air in our daughter’s life every day.

It wasn’t just for the vitamin D, they assured us, though she would need that, too—it was more of a matter of being exposed to fresh air and sheer playfulness every day.

I wholeheartedly agree with this philosophy—and I’m happy to report that at least some doctors do, too. A pediatrician in Ohio, for example, prescribes a minimum of one hour per day of outdoor exposure to her patients. Dr. Wendy Anderson-Willis says, “I think it’s the right of every child to play outside and it’s the job of the adults to create a world where this is possible.” If only every doctor uttered this statement instead of automatically prescribing pills for diseases that may or may not be present within a child!

This reminds me of my own daughter’s pediatrician. Last year, she had several months of on-and-off ear infections and colds. She had sinus issues, and we never really understood why; she never had them as a baby, and she didn’t go to bed with a bottle or anything like that. Each time we visited the doctor, after examining her ears—and pronouncing them super yucky—we were prescribed antibiotics, just like that. After I read about how many ear infections cannot be treated with antibiotics, how they’re rarely prescribed in Europe, and how American doctors just give them out like candy because parents expect it—as if they’re legalized pill pushers!—I was so dismayed to find that my daughter wasn’t being treated; assumptions about my desires as a parent were.

I would much rather a doctor treat my daughter with means as natural as possible than over-prescribing medications (although I do have to hand it to their office for pointing us toward an all-natural cough remedy). And if this prescribing nature as a remedy becomes a trend, I think it would be one of the best things to benefit kids all across the country in a long time—not to mention their parents. Of course, it would also be great to simply make taking kids outside every day a part of normal childhood again.