My baby just put a dead shrew in her mouth

[BaylisAndHardon]

Posting in AIBU for traffic, and to ask for a hand hold while I get over this horror.

We live in an old victorian house (with many mouse holes) in the country and have a cat to manage the rodent populus, but he also sometimes brings things in . I always check the floor of the snug for anything and disinfect/scrub if he has before putting her down to play.

But this time he put it under a toy in her play pen and I didn't see it and she picked it up and put it in her mouth before I could lauch myself at her to get it out. I am horrified.

Messages of support please. Also accounts of children who have survived to adulthood after putting disgusting things in their mouths. Tell me your worst. I need to hear it.

DS put regurgitated cat food in his mouth (he may even have swallowed some, who knows!) and is now strapping teen.

Seems normal, honest.

To be boring and scientific it would be great to find out the subsequent rates of asthma and food allergy in the "gross" eaters listed here compared to an equal number of "clean" children.(seriously) I was born in East Africa and with only a nappy on used to sit in the dust outside the house searching for rusty nails to suck. Subsequently no significant allergies for sixty years. As a vet I have total and utter respect for the faithful and generous cat. Ours used to little kill snakes. (And offer them.) So cats are great to have around.

I agree it must have an evolutionary advantage as it’s such an innate behaviour.

@trudi33

To be boring and scientific it would be great to find out the subsequent rates of asthma and food allergy in the "gross" eaters listed here compared to an equal number of "clean" children.(seriously) I was born in East Africa and with only a nappy on used to sit in the dust outside the house searching for rusty nails to suck. Subsequently no significant allergies for sixty years. As a vet I have total and utter respect for the faithful and generous cat. Ours used to little kill snakes. (And offer them.) So cats are great to have around.

I know my paediatrician advised me to expose my boys "early and frequently." And they are both now in their 40's, one is 6 feet 10 inches, the other 6 feet 4 inches (poor runt), and seem to be as healthy as horses. Yes, that first one is the one who ate the cockroach. I shudder over that to this day, 39 years later!

I usedto be fed dog biscuits to apparently help my teeth come through. As a teen we used to do a eating raw bacon challenge (wtf!!). My brother found a dead frog and gave it full on mouth to mouth.

My kids used to eat the cat food in the cats bowl aswell

No need to worry, kids are brought up in sanitized homes these days, dirt & germs help the immune system... Look back & smile!

One of my twins ate dog shit in the park once while in the crawling stage. I didn’t even have any wipes on me and had to clean him up with my jacket! He’s 4 now with the constitution of an ox.

Apparently I used to put woodlice in my mouth as a child, I can't look at them now

Doesn't sound worrying - am sure you retrieved the shrew before your DS bit into him! Tell him not to do anything like that again because it it frightens the little mammal, which is more like to have success than just telling him not to do it,

My baby put a hair ball the cat had sicked up in her mouth once

One time my little girl put something that looked like an autumn leaf in her mouth. I ambled over slowly to take it out of her mouth. As I got closer I realised it was a piece of pepperoni that must have fallen off someone’s takeaway pizza!

@trudi33

To be boring and scientific it would be great to find out the subsequent rates of asthma and food allergy in the "gross" eaters listed here compared to an equal number of "clean" children.(seriously) I was born in East Africa and with only a nappy on used to sit in the dust outside the house searching for rusty nails to suck. Subsequently no significant allergies for sixty years. As a vet I have total and utter respect for the faithful and generous cat. Ours used to little kill snakes. (And offer them.) So cats are great to have around.

@trudi33 The science is not that simple, the so-called hygiene hypothesis has been debunked. There are a lot of studies into this already. It’s beneficial to promote a diverse gut biome but still eliminate pathogens. Eg wash hands when you handle raw meat. But not always before you eat a sandwich.

Personally, my youngest DC ate a snail and some bird poo as a baby. Also found him under a restaurant table chewing gum he’d picked off from underneath....we have a dog and he went to a forest school style nursery (outside all day).

He has asthma, severe food allergies and is underweight.

It’s hurtful when people suggest his health issues are attributable to my ‘hyper clean’ parenting as 1. I am a slattern - our house is not very clean; and 2. He was accidentally exposed to some disgusting things .

It is not clear why he has so many health issues but it is not because he had a overly sanitised early life...as he didn’t ......

I’m having flashbacks. He also ate cold chips on the ground in the stands of a sports stadium - that had been walked on....

Yes sorry but dd1 who ate aforementioned slug and was prone to eating food she dropped on floor and who grew up with me as a parent ( I hate housework and as a working single mum cleaning just well barely ever happened) is a frail fussy eater with more than her share of allergies ( skin product related mainly) so definitely not down to lack of germ exposure in our case!

@quelguechose don't worry, just the other day my 3 year old ate toast crusts she found on the ground in a car park whilst I was strapping her sister into the car 🤣

NOT TO WORRY!
My daughter put a used dildo in her mouth and somehow survived!
She also ate things off of the floor despite being told not to.

My youngest (almost 2) in the space of 2 month tried dog poo, goose poo and raw bacon!

I'm traumatised, she's fine.

When I was a toddler I merrily chomped down peacock poo in the split second my mother turned around to get something out of her bag mere feet away. It was fine!

My one year old ate some dog diarreah. Dog was in the kitchen and I had a stair gate up. Went into pee in the downstairs cloakroom with door open and seen her reaching her arm through to kitchen. Came out and there was brown liquid on her fingers and mouth. Looked down and the dog had had diarreah just in her reach on the kitchen floor. Shes 11 now so she survived it. Iv never told her. When she is being an arsehole as a teenager I might 😂