Hey Hey! I take my little 10-month-old to the garden with me all the time. She sees me and her brother diggin' in the dirt and she HAS to join us. So I let her get down and dirty. This is all fine and dandy, but, she likes to eat the dirt. I thought if I let her do it a few times, she'd realize there was nothin' special about it, and lose interest. But nooooo! She mows down on it like there's no tommorrow. She'd eat it all day if I let her. Have any of you experienced this? What do you do? Let them eat? Or banish them from the dirt? Many Blessings! Lena
Test the soil for lead. If your garden is near a busyish road I would be wary (just finished writing an article about gardening in cities and this is what the experts told me) H
"God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt!" Seriously, I doubt a little dirt in her mouth will do any harm, but I don't know if it is a good idea to let her eat it for a snack! I think you should try to keep her from eating it. Esp. because of molds, chemicals, bugs, feces from random animals, etc.
Don't let her eat cups full of it (obviously.) But like others have said, if you have an organic garden, and keep an eye on her, it won't hurt her to eat a little. Sometimes babies this age go a little nuts with the dirt eating. Then I would get out the saucer and put the baby in there. I had a saucer JUST for the garden, when my kids had to be out of my way, or were eating to much dirt or starting to eat the weeds (remember the leaves of pepper, tomato and potato are poisonous.)
Thanks Maggie! I didn't know that! I do have an organic garden, and I am planting my pepper seedlings soon, so I'll have to keep that in mind. She refuses to go in her saucer these days. I have to get a traveling play pen for her. Although, now that she's gotten used to being able to crawl around in the dirt...I'm not sure she'll go for it. I'll give it a try.
check this site, or others like it; http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/pica.html It could be lack of something in your childs diet. My boy ate rocks and we found out his iron was low causing his lead to be high. Bad stuff, get her checked out. It slowed his developement some. Mojoe
Sometimes it's just the oral exploration thing. Kids at certain ages discover stuff with their mouths.
Yep Yep, that's true. But, she's already discovered it, many many times. I think she just likes to eat it.
Hey great article! She's only ten months old though, and she seems to be developing fine. She's fully breastfeeding as her number one source of food right now, so I'm confidant that she's getting all the vitamins, minerals, protien, fat, and whatever else she needs. She does eat solid food also, so I know she's not starved, ha ha. I think they check for anemia at the doctors sometime soon. I know they did with my first, who WAS anemic at 11 months old, after I had stopped breastfeeding. Article on Pica Definitly not abnormal yet, but hard to keep her from doing it. Might be because of this She definitly has an oral fixation, haha. She's a baby and babies do. She was taking a paci but has been loosing interest lately. Sometimes I can get her to take it and avoid a muddy mouth all together. And other times she'll have nothing to do with it. Or according to this, it could be some form of past life habit that stuck with her, ha ha ha: Okay, all joking aside, I do try to keep her from eating too much dirt and other substances. This is what I'd like to try to avoid:
*assuming garden is organic* here is an important observation - is she SWALLOWING the dirt? or just putting it in her mouth and feeling it? I agree with most of the advice given - if it were my child and they weren't eating cupfulls of it then i would let them go at it. Dirt has anti-oxidents in it which are good for you, and i dont remember the study, but i remember hearing that that is why it is good to work with dirt (IE: in the garden, etc). I've never heard of tomato, potato and pepper leaeves being poisonous though -
Yes, they contain Solanines, which are very toxic.(in the Deadly Nightshade Family, and also contain atropine, which is poisonous in certain quantities.) No one should eat them, especially a baby. Here's a good list of poisonous plants. http://www.goldenacregarden.com/gguide/poison/list.htm
eh, in addition to all the above, what i try with my dozens of little kiddies (i'm a teacher) is we make 'dirt sundaes.' this basically involves putting coco cookies in a bag, and getting some safe hammer like object and letting the kids pound the hell out of the cookies. then you could find something fun to put the dirt on, oh i dunno. we use icecream but i don't personally support that, so.... maybe broccoli. just kidding. on second thought, maybe your child is a bit young. but, if she eats dirt still when she ages a bit...
