to let my baby lick the bin?

[minidisco]

My 10 month old crawled up to our kitchen bin this afternoon, and as it is mirrored she likes looking at herself in it. I was filming her talking to her reflection, as it was very cute! She then licked the bin a few times, and was giggling at the feel of the cold metal. I sent my dh the video, thinking he would find it funny and he's had a go at me! He said that the germs on it could seriously harm her, and that I am clueless. Obviously I don't intend on letting her make licking the bin a habbit, but was ibu to let her lick the bin?! I suspect after writing it down that I was!

You know where we are if you want to start a thread ok

[I don't want to start a big row, but starburst, we sterilise because of the bugs that grow rapidly in milk. The fact babies are licking other stuff is irrelevant. It's a bit like saying if they chew shoes then we'll stop using the fridge and leave food on the bench instead or eat raw chicken]

I dont think anyone is cool with such things formerbabe, just saying that it happens and everyone lived to tell the tale.

I think the message here is that babies put stuff in their mouth that is perhaps undesirable but there isn't much we can do to stop them.

I ate my own poo as a baby, im fine honest!

And its a bit hard to helicopter parent when you have more than one

I have two children actually.

formerbabe for what its worth I think you're getting a hard time for daring to suggest that licking bins or dog bowls isn't ideal!

Not tricky to stop that. In OP's case all she had to do was put down the video camera!

So go on then, how do you watch them both at the same time? Assuming you have a small age gap

Just be aware of where they are. It isn't rocket science.

Yes I have a small age gap and it's bloody hard watching them both.

However if they did start licking the bin, I would move them away rather than film it.

I don't have pets so that's not an issue.

My kids have never eaten cat poo...I have clearly failed as a mother.

Well unless you let bin juice run down the sides and rub raw chicken all over it then I think your DH is over reacting a bit!

Would imagine if its a shiny metal bin then you must clean it pretty often or it wouldn't be so shiny! So I doubt she will of picked up anymore germs than say licking the kitchen cupboard, he's being a tit!

Ok then about a month ago ds3 was coming down a couple of steps getting off a pirate ship, I was so close I could almost touch him but I bent down to pick a piece of bark out of 20 month old ds4s mouth. In the time that took ds3 chopped his chin and almost bit straight through his tongue.

Its a bit silly thinking that if you are aware of where they are at all times one of them wont put something in their mouth or fall of something while you are dealing with the other one isnt it

My bin is cleaner than most of dd's toys! I wipe the bin down daily!

Mine have never eaten cat poo either but I can see how it could happen if I was dealing with the older one and took my eyes off the little one for a second

Although id never had one that put everthing in his mouth until ds4

My ds in the past has eaten half a slug and his own shit (and these are just the things I've caught him doing, God knows what I've missed!)

He's perfectly healthy

Clearly they sre not all the same some are faster, more cunning.

dD is good 90% of the time, knows she shouldnt do something. Then maybe tiredness, naughtiness turns her back, goes quiet and eats something. She also put lots up her nose many peas etc again not all the time. Mainly when dH is here so again tired and distractions. Same with playdough and ripping books.
Its when they do stuff they havent before.
Mine has picked up the cat poo (but then i blame the cat owners)

Surely your rubbish goes IN the bin and not down the side of it. And I presume that if you did spill any rubbish down the outside of the bin, you'd clean it up. I don't see how that's gross. Much less gross than say, her putting a toy down on the carpet and then putting it back in her mouth. People walk on the carpet...with their manky feet and shoes. Err.

Your OH is being far too precious about germs, IMO. Would he have reacted the same way if she'd licked the fridge/a cupboard? I fail to see the difference. It sound gross yes, but if you actually stop and think about it, it's not like she was head first in the bin munching on the contents.

exactly contact. The OUTside of a bin, unless there is manky innards dribbling down the side, makes contact with a lot less germs than floors, toys etc etc.

I'm not saying I was ok with my ds eating the cat poo. It happened when I wasnt watching him for 15 seconds. But as a pp says he lived to tell the tale.

As for the choice between filming your dd being cute looking at her reflection on the side of the bin or going "no, dirty!" when she licked it and pulling her away it really depends on how manky the bin was. I'm guessing not very manky so I probably would have carried on filming too. my oh would have laughed at the video not threatened me with disease - guilt and social services.

Kids eat loads of weird shit. Sometimes you can even track what its doing in their bodies... ;-)

m.youtube.com/watch?v=-VajS1L0Us8

Dd is 11months old loves the bin, sweeping brush and dust pan! I do not have enough minutes in the day to stop her licking/stuffing any of these in her cheeky little mouth! She's still alive
And that's nothing compared to the amount of paper she eats! Give that girl a lidl magazine and she's happy for ages.

I sound really crap

The outside of my kitchen bin is exceedingly clean. Like exceedingly. Why would anyone want a bin so dirty that it was a health risk inside their house anyway?

In fact, I'd be a lot less bothered about dgd2 (who is now bin-licking age) having a crafty lick of the outside of my kitchen bin than I would see her engaged on her other current ambition. Which is to examine the dog's bottom.

Your DH really needs to calm down, OP.

There's a fair bit of cat's-bum mouth on this thread. Which is ironic when you think about it.

It is gross, however babies and children do gross things all the time!

A one off probably wont do any harm, I hardly think any one actively promotes bin licking!

I am pretty sure me and my children have guts of steel because I don't care much about germs.

I wouldn't let them lick the inside obviously, but the outside? meh

That is what babies and toddlers do.

My ds once kept licking the dog and I asked him why he and he said the dog kept licking him and he wanted it to know what it felt like! I thought it was funny and never thought about germs! although if it was its butt I would have done ;)

Kids are gross, this is a fact. I recently witness a child standing on a seat on the bus, nose pressed to the window and happily smearing their tongue all over it as they watched the world whizzing by. It was disgusting and you could see layers upon layers of finger prints under the drool but the mother was ignoring the whole thing...