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.

My babies have eaten:
A worm
Poo
Winkles
All have licked the handle of a supermarket trolley - which pre-covid must have been covered in germs.
A friends child who I was looking after ate a cigarette butt and then choked on it!

All are fine.

At a baby group everyone was discussing how they sterilised their 6/7 month olds bowls and spoons as they were weaning. I admitted that I didn't bother as my baby had managed to chew on the dogs foot the previous week after suddenly deciding she would crawl at 6 months! Luckily the dog was a diamond and just looked at me as I moved the baby away and gave him some treats in the kitchen!

My mum says she caught me eating ladybirds once as a toddler, and DS used to lick the soles of shoes if you ever left them anywhere he could get at them

Same DS actually ate a rabbit dropping straight from the cage at MIL house once because he thought it was a raisin. Bleurgh.

Oh my - some of this is making me simultaneously laugh and gag

My daughter ate a large earthworm (after being dared by her brother) and licked a cat’s bum (again, her brother & cousin). And put a dead frog in her mouth of her own accord

She was 2 then. She turned 24 a few weeks ago. (And her cousin, 29 & brother, 28, still bring the story up every Christmas!). And she used to suck the dogs ears. Still alive

Oh my

Something to hold over her forever

My brother ate a snail - and would eat soil - my mum said

Slugs, spiders, worms, random insects (in ears as well as mouths), near misses on the cat puke and the many semi live delights brought in by cats. Not to mention the licking and chewing of the full range of inanimate objects.

All disgustingly health adults, rarely catch bugs and colds, very rarely caught bugs when at school.

I like to think of it as enlightened pre innoculation rather than haphazard parenting

I had a stage where DD was lightning fast at getting bizarre things into her mouth and swallowing them. A 20 second trip into the back garden would mean a dandelion in her nappy the next day.

I removed a snail from between her lips one time and she definitely licked a slug . She ate soil, some small pebbles etc too. She's totally fine and thankfully the phase of sticking stuff in her mouth is waning now.

Yep my toddler also ate a snail not so long ago. He's also known to eat from he cat's bowl.

He also took a bite out of a stress ball as if it was an apple, and swallowed it. Thankfully it was in his nappy the next day (bright blue).

Ds ate half a worm which to me seemed worse than a full one. Dd ate a few woodlice before I realised what was holding her interest in the garden. Both fine.

This happened to a mum at a baby group I went to. She came charging in utterly horrified as 9 month old quietly sitting on kitchen floor sucking on what she thought was a toy, and carried on around her. Only many minutes later realised it was a dead mouse. I still see her around and said 6 year old looks robust.

Many a time I was told that I used to be caught chewing on slugs in the garden as a toddler and ive lived to the ripe old age of 55 :)

DS is 2 and has definitely eaten/drank the following:

Cat litter
Water from the dog's bowl
Some berries from one of our garden plants (thankfully not poisonous)
A stone

I also caught him brushing his hair with the toilet brush 🤮 and he's very fond of licking shoes

I do attempt to care for/control him but I'm convinced he's semi feral!

Dd was in the garden playing with ds's friends. She was always desperate to join in with the big boys. They found a dead mouse - dared her to pick it up. She did. I didn't find out for hours so doubtless had touched mouth etc . She was fine.

I don't ever remember eating anything live, I think I've always been grossed out by them, now more than ever. I was slightly traumatised finding a dead woodlouse on my carpet upstairs today, I haven't took my slippers off since and probably won't for a while. I absolutely hate the things.

My mum did recently remind me though, that I ate her friends parrots food once when I was younger and had been hovering around the cage for a while when she checked up on me and caught me at it, I also have memories of when used to sneak under the table when I was very young possibly reception age? And eat the playdough. It tasted salty and I enjoyed it.

My DS are a ladybird when he was a baby ... he's fine.. he also ate a bourbon off the floor of a service station.. don't know who's bourbon it was .. we had no bourbons!!

DD used to lick other peoples dogs.. please don't worry ❤️❤️

Aww this is making me laugh 😂 OP I hope you’re feeling ok now after hearing what all the other treasures have eaten!

Once on a picnic my baby nephew picked up a petrified dog poo, it was tucked just under the blanket. Just about got it in his mouth!

My other nephew cried because he wanted one

My son put a snail in his mouth when little. I have heard horror stories of what eating slugs can do to people, so was panicking about it, but it had no ill effects that I can tell. After that whenever he found a snail he would make sure we were looking before putting it up to his open mouth just to get our horrified reaction, little so and so (but he was very young).

@BrumBoo

My eldest won't eat most food due to sensory issues. As a toddler though, he tried to eat a poo in the park (I managed to stop him), sand, sudocreme, playdough.... if it was non-edable hes try to eat it.

My DD did this when she was 1, I was changing my 2 year old DS nappy and she had crawled up behind me, while he was on the changing mat, grabbed a poo from his nappy and popped it in her mouth, I got it out but it didnt kill her :) Her brothers tease her about it to this day "remember that time DD ate a poo!

I also used to be a obsessive chewer also if that counts, I bit all the buttons of my remote when I was younger, loved to chew the red baby bell wax thing and the handle of a beautiful dolls peak I'd been given for Christmas.

Couldnt find DD one day , and she'd managed to scoot in her baby Walker ( which you probably can't use now for health n safety ) gnawing on the loo seat in the downstairs loo

These all seem positively wholesome compared to my fag-end licking central London baby.

She got her own back on me though, on holiday in a wooden lodge, I was sleeping in the loung on the sofa bed when a disorientated 3 year old DD came sleepily out of her bed pulled down her pjs and weed on my head. I woke to warm urine running down my face. I assume she had slept walked and not deliberately weed on my head.