to allow my baby to hurt herself?

[ThroughTheRoundWindow]

Now, before you all start phoning social services I'm not sitting her at the top of the stairs with a pile of razor blades and letting her do what she will! All I mean is that occasionally I let her play with things (under supervision) which aren't strictly toys and allow her to find out what it can do.

For example yesterday she found an elastic band on the floor. She chewed it and pulled at it happily for 10 minutes before the inevitable happened and it twanged back and hit her in the face. It hurt, she cried, I gave her a hug and less than a minute later she was fine again. She never let go of the elastic band and as soon as I put her down again she started playing with it again. She didn't twang herself in the face again though.

To me this seems ok but I go to a baby group where the Mum's go through the treasure baskets and take out anything they consider might pose a risk (keys too sharp, stick too pointy, pine cone too fragile) and only let the baby touch the really smooth, really boring objects. Always one to doubt myself I do see this and sometimes wonder if I am a bit lassez-faire with my child's safety? And I dread to think what these women would do if they saw my baby at home allowed to eat small food items and chew toys that aren't 100% clean.

To me it is important to let her explore freely, but even more it is important that I trust her to explore. If I can't let her chew and elastic band now, how on earth am I going to let her ride a bike or walk to the shops on her own or any of the 1,000,000 more risky things she needs to do in order to grow up?

Is this reasonable or should I be taking more care?

Sorry, I'm a helicopter parent here and I cringed when I read your post. I can't help being the way I am, but my babies are so precious to me I can't stand the thought of anything hurting them, even if it is in the name of learning.

Well done for being so brave though.

OP it is perfectly possible to let an older child go to the shops, ride a bike etc without watching them play with elastic bands as a baby until they 'inevitably' smack them in the face and make them cry.

But you seem 100% set on your opinion so not sure why you've posted tbh.

I agree. I don't think you do believe for one minute that you are "laissez faire". You are following your philosophy and have concluded that other mothers are over-protective. There's a dismissive air in your OP about what other parents do. Pholisophies are fine, but they need to be flexible. Broadly speaking I agree with you that parenting is a natural progression of letting children explore and take acceptable risks. But in my mind, not allowing a small baby to be hurt by an elastic band is not the same as disinfecting toys.

This is the bit I'm referring to:

Always one to doubt myself I do see this and sometimes wonder if I am a bit lassez-faire with my child's safety? And I dread to think what these women would do if they saw my baby at home allowed to eat small food items and chew toys that aren't 100% clean.

Maybe some of those mums at the baby group remove certain things because they go to the group to give them a bit of time to not have to watch their children every second. Maybe they have more than one child to juggle.

I have BLW one of my dcs, and I am very well aware of how choking occurs (ds is constantly at risk of choking, unfortunately on his own saliva) and the difference between choking and gagging. Elastic bands are a choking hazard. The op asked specifically if she was BU about letting her baby hurt herself, with an elastic band - it would seem she had only thought about the pinging in the face potential(!), but it is the choking risk that would mean I wouldn't let my any of my dcs play with an elastic band when they were babies. As GetAwayFromHerYouBitch (love your name) says, this is a completely different ball park to letting your babies play with dirty toys, roll around in the mud let them explore their environment.

There is a difference between letting a child explore & letting them play/chew things that may harm them. did it occour to you that your child could have swallowed & chocked on the elastic band? personally i wouldn't let a baby play with an elastic band not only because of the risk of chocking but also because i wouldn't want my child accidently "panging" theirself in the face.

It's your job to remove thing's that may be dangerous/a chocking hazard to your child. esp as a small child will not know any better. it's a bit different if they child is older and relises if you do this or play with that this may happen and they do it anyways. in that case they would learn that from themself if they didn't take an notice of your warning.

Can an elastic band actually block the windpipe though? I agree that balloons, marbles, grapes, sausages etc. all can, but an elastic band ?

I'm generally pretty slack in my parenting, in most respects not just safety, but I won't even have marbles in the house, and still cut grapes into quarters for my toddler, won't let him play with balloons unless I'm hovering over him. It hadn't occurred to me to worry about elastic bands. Our postman drops them everywhere, we pass at least 10 on each journey to the school or post box. I'm sure DS has had a chew on one...

I'm happy to let my little one explore most things but putting elastic band in mouth is a no no IMO. She could easily choke to that! I love treasure baskets and think they are fab.
This coming from the woman who also died after swallowing an old 5p, and got stabbed in eye with scissors!