T o let my dc pick up food from the floor and eat it?

[mrsruffallo]

I just had a rather heated discussion with SIL who basically told me I was being irresponsible letting my dc eat food they have dropped on the floor.She thought it was disgusting, and didn't allow her dc to do it- even at home!!!Beacause she said, you never knew what people had on their shoes. I think she is wrong and my dc have certainly never been ill because of eating off the floor!!
Is this another example of people being paranoid about 'germs' or do any of you agree with her? I just wanted to know what the general attitude to this is, so , please fire away.....

thank you WanderingTrolley - that last bit is still making me laugh!

My dd has never been told she cant eat it, but will always pick up whatever she has dropped and put it in the bin - the trouble I have now is keeping ds 15mths from trying to retreive the items

In our house, this is called weaning.

My DS ( 20 months ) Likes to eat dirt in the local city farm

LOL Alistair

at home - anywhere (why would the bathroom automatically be dirtier than anywhere else? surely only INSIDE the toilet is the problem?!)

outdoors - if theres anyone about i pretend i haven't noticed til its too late.

the best ever childcare advice i have heard is "pick your battles." and before every intervention with my toddler i take a second to think if i care enough to risk a possible tantrum/lifelong issues. the answer is usually no. we get on great!

bloody hell whats the world coming to if you cant eat food just cause t has been dropped on the floor even if it was your last Rolo!!!!If my kids go to pick it up off the floor I say errr thats dirty but let them do it anyway. they do need to build up their immune systems. Kids need germs and us molly coddling them doesnt help them.

It's fine unless there are animals in the house as they do bring in all sorts.

at home - fine
out and about - depends where

YANBU.

This is how I ended up weaning DS

The floor in your house may be dirty/dusty etc, but, (and I'm talking wooden floors mainly), they dont have half the nasties that your SIL probably has on her dishcloth

Ok, i need to confess to you all that one day not so long ago, i came across a smartie on my living room carpet.

Yes it had been sucked of all its colour and yes it apeared to have been abandoned for an amount of time.

Well, the thing is, before i knew what was happening, the smartie was in my mouth and i was greedily crunching it.
My point is thus:

You dont waste perfectly good fucking chocolate and......................the kitchen bin is a long way away in my house.

there, now forgive me, 100 hail mary's.

the phrase in our house goes 'god kissed it, devil missed it'. obviouslyi wouldn't spoon up some day old beans off the floor, but the odd dropped iscuit or something, no ned to waste it

I let my ds do it as long as it isn't covered in dirt or hair. They do need to be exposed to germs to help their immune systems develop. He certainly never has been ill from eating something that's been on the floor and nor have I so what's the problem.

I do at home, assuming I've mopped fairly recently, or mum's / MIL's.
I did consider putting all his food on the floor recently, as he seems to eat more of that than the stuff on his high chair!

Starlight that was possibly the loudest LOL I've ever done! thank you

Have to second the animal thing as my Dad engrained worm phobia a bit too inextricably when I was small (to the point where I can't relax until I've washed my hands after touching an animal... I know it's freaky).

But you mostly catch threadworms from taps

My house def 3 second rule unless it is chocolate. Blow the fluff off and it will be fine.

Outside and manky cafe floors etc, would tend to leave it.

Your SIL is worried that your kids will feed the dropped food to hers

I am trying to discourage this as toddlers don't seem to distinguish between clean floors and dirty pavements

My 3 yr old proceeded to scoff the donut he dropped on the filthy Sains floor today, this was after he had flipped over the P&T buggy trapping himself underneath it and terrifying the baby who was still strapped in

Immune system boost. The only place I wouldn't let them do this is in a hospital. Does get people rather uptight though, I must say...

Incidentally, something like 95% (totally made up statistic for effect) of English people get D & V bugs on holiday in Egypt. Can't help thinking that if they ate a little more floor food, they'd be less weedy...

PMSL at occult drink - puts a whole new slant on it

Winky - not true about 'unless animals are in the house' either, even more reason actually as your dcs need to be exposed and therefore immunised against their germs as well.

Totally agree that there are more germs on kitchen dishcloths than pets feet etc and also agree that I wouldn't allow my dcs to eat anything from a hospital, you do actually risk death there

LOL Wandering Trolley.
I do remember swimming in the local canal every summer from the age of about 5, and coming down with terrible tummy bugs. I think it was the doc who suggested it may be raw sewage from the boats, but I don't think it stopped us swimming.

I bet you are rarely if ever ill now though Ruty!

We do the three second rule. If and only If I've just washed the floors!!!!

Well now I'm just a hypochondriac so it's hard to tell.