to have not managed to stop toddler DS kissing sheep..

[tholeon]

at a petting zoo. I did tell him not to, but not well enough. He is 22 months, he has recently started kissing everything.... I told DH who said that sheep carry lots of horrible diseases, so I googled and now I'm worried about E Coli. To try to reassure us I said that this sort of thing must happen all the time, but DH said that most parents would stop their kids doing this...

It was last week, but apparently there can be quite a long incubation period. He was very ill as a small baby so I am extra PFB about him, but am trying to be normal nowadays...

YANBU - perfectly normal thing for a toddler to do. The E.coli scare is massively blown out of proportion. When I was a very small kid, I used to "help" feeding my Aunt's orphan lambs. They would kiss me ( more like lick the snot off my nose) and I never came to any harm.

Isn't there usually a lot of signs up at these places warning to wash your hands etc if you've been in any contact with the animals?
I would have stopped him tbh.

thanks thingamig.

looking - yes there are signs. He did it before I could stop him. He's a toddler. If it is that dangerous they shouldn't let toddlers in at all. But now I'm worried. Perhaps we should avoid those places altogether.

I grew up on a farm. I kissed lambs, piglets, calves and who knows what else. 60 years on it doesn't seem to have done any damage.

Toddlers do allsorts of revolting things.
The human race really wouldn't have survived if occasional contact with a common domesticated animal was an overall high risk.
Carry on enjoying days out with your toddler, and stop beating yourself up.

OP. Hmmm...I take it you're Welsh.

YABU, he will be fine. I grew up on a sheep station.

I am still alive, do you think farm kids are dropping dead in their droves?

It wouldn't even occur to me to be worried about this TBH.

Toddlers do all sorts of disgusting things, DS1 ate bird poo once. Kissing sheep is nothing.

Personally I wouldn't be overly worried about it, but then I only just stopped my 2yo DS from licking a bin in the street the other day- compared to that, a sheep is nothing.

E-coli is the last of your worries - google Hydatid .... lovely disease.

Well if it was before you could stop him there was nothing much you could do then!
I did like to eat worms at that age and i've survived

thanks all except for troisgarcons - that's just mean! Don't pick on an anxious mum! (I am fully aware I win PFB prizes, but he was long awaited ivf child, then spent 6 weeks in hospital as small baby including major op etc, so have some excuses...)

But the rest of you have made me feel much better. I know normal toddlers do this type of stuff and survive, but DH didn't really help much, he seemed to think I should have stopped him before it happened. But he doesn't do as much hands on toddler care as me...

Yesterday DS got his lolly stick and stuck it in to a potty full of wee, then licked it. Your DS will be fine tholeon :)

Oh, yes. You should have used your magical MummyPowers to realise before your DS moved towards the sheep that he was likely to kiss it.

Tell your DH not to be daft. We cannot anticipate all the silly things that our DC do. They think up new silly things daily.

Don't worry about it. It would not even have occurred to me not to let them do this, so you are one up on me.

He will be fine and probably have more immunity that most children now!

Don't worry.

There was me thinking, gosh how cute your ds is!

Cute.

Probably good for him in the longterm. I think a lot of the issues with illnesses and allergies in later life is that people are now to clean. Bleach this, wipe that etc

My kids(like I did) get filthy in the garden(struggle to stop DS1 from kissing the dog, eating mud, but least he's stopped with sand).

I did the same. It's a boy thing. ;-)