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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

need someone medical/sciency with knowledge of human body to settle dispute between DH and I

51 replies

crokky · 25/08/2009 22:21

So...

I think DH has been irresponsible and he thinks I am stupid.

Whilst me and 3yo and 1yo were asleep, he was cutting plastic tags off clothes over the kitchen table (you know those plastic things with T shaped ends that keep the price tags on clothes). He cut a tag and lost it, but knew it was somewhere on the kitchen table. He went to work whilst we were all still asleep and didn't tell me what'd happened.

I came down and fed 3yo and 1yo breakfast (and lunch) at table. As you'll all know, little kids food comes off plates and onto table etc. Later on, I'm clearing up and find this tag on the table. I'm fuming because I think the DCs could easily have got this stuck to their sandwich etc and accidentally eaten it. I also think that it would be really harmful to eat a little T shaped piece of this tag and that it would get stuck in their intestines and not be visible on an x ray, well and potentially kill them.

Please tell me who is being unreasonable! I won't mind if it is me, I just need to know. I am quite pedantic about keeping the table and floor clean (not germ wise, but just free from stuff the DCs might put in mouths).

OP posts:

HeadFairy · 25/08/2009 22:23

I'm not a sciency type, but I don't think it would have killed them at all. I've swallowed God knows what in my lifetime - I used to stick everything in my mouth. When I was 3 I even ate broken glass and survived. I think the greater risk is from things that can block their airways, coins, pen lids and the like.

hf128219 · 25/08/2009 22:23

Yep, that can be potentially dangerous - and one a lot of parents don't think about.

redpyjamas · 25/08/2009 22:24

I'm not medical, but it would not occur to me to worry about that.

CowWatcher · 25/08/2009 22:25

I am no expert, but from what I understand (half-conversations with friend who is a doctor) most plastic things swallowed by children are harmless & pass out the usual way. However, clearly there are lots of things children swallow tht are dangerous & if it had been a long thin plastic tag thingy I would have been cross as would imagine this could get stuck in intestines etc. Afraid I think YABU but your husband should take care with what he leaves lying about. IYSWIM. Sitting on fence.

FluffySaysTheDailyMailsShite · 25/08/2009 22:25

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. It wouldn't be digested (it's plastic), it wouldn't show up on an x-ray (because it's plastic) so will more then likely come out the other end. It's highly unlikely to cause any damage, children eat all sorts and live to tell the tale. The human body is more robust then we give it credit.

brimfull · 25/08/2009 22:27

I wouldn't worry about this at all.

If they can swallow it without choking then it'll just come out the other end.

I am a nurse if that is at all relevant.

so I think you are being unreasonable

PacificDogwood · 25/08/2009 22:27

I do not think swalling a little bit of plastic like those tag thingies would be at all dangerous.
It would reemerge unaltered after a couple of days, if you were bothered searching for it .
I am a GP. Disclaimer: I am no specialist and irresponible non-chalant mother whose DSs have ingested all manner of things without undue effects

thirtypence · 25/08/2009 22:29

If it is dangerous then I am a bad mum as I have just pulled off a load of those tags on top of ds's bed and wasn't intending to check I had all the bits when I put them in the bin.

It can't be more dangerous than a fish bone, or getting a bit of cling film stuck to a sandwich and ingested both of which are more likely - unless your dh unwraps a lot of clothes.

It's his house too, I wouldn't expect my dh to wake me up to tell me something like this.

FluffySaysTheDailyMailsShite · 25/08/2009 22:32

That's not quite true thirtypence, I've seen some cracking x-rays of fishbones stuck in throats, they are really thin and really sharp, a plastic tag bit is thick and fairly blunt in comparison, there's no chance of one of these ending up lying horizontal through the epiglottis.

Original poster

crokky · 25/08/2009 22:33

Wow, lots of people up late !

Thanks for responses.

Those tag things are so common, they're in every shop etc etc and so I did think they shouldn't be dangerous, but then I am a worrier!

Fortunately this time I don't have to search for it coming out the other end as I found it. But, I would search poo if I though either of them had eaten it!

Everybody thinks IABU apart from hf128219.

OP posts:

hf128219 · 25/08/2009 22:35

I read somewhere that it can be dangerous and have always been fastidious about making sure I have all the bits!

Or was that safety pins?

dogofpoints · 25/08/2009 22:36

YABU

You do not sound like a relaxing person to share a house with

Original poster

crokky · 25/08/2009 22:38

Bizarrely it was my MIL who told me it could be dangerous. And it is HER son leaving all the tags around!!

He left part of a broken pen within easy reach of both of them as well a few weeks ago, so I am always nagging him about leaving stuff lying around.

OP posts:

MsHighwater · 25/08/2009 22:39

I really think searching poo would be a bit OTT - after all, if you didn't find it, how could you be sure that you hadn't just missed it?

I think it would be unlikely to cause much of a problem. Not a reason not to be a bit more careful, though.

Original poster

crokky · 25/08/2009 22:40

dogofpoints - no I am not a relaxing person to share a house with .

OP posts:

HeadFairy · 25/08/2009 22:41

There are so many things to worry about in life, I really wouldn't worry about this. My dh left a used razor blade in our (open topped) bathroom bin the other day... I only realised when I found ds playing with it I nearly fainted, dh has been rather firmly told to put them in the kitchen bin which has a tight lid!!!

Mumcentreplus · 25/08/2009 22:49

nope...tags are not death dealing rest easy...your DH is not a twat

Nancy66 · 25/08/2009 22:53

Over reaction on your part I think - wouldn't occur to me that they could be dangerous.

seeker · 25/08/2009 22:58

How, exactly would a centimetre long plastic T shape kill you?

TheNightingaleComplex · 25/08/2009 23:07

YABU, in respect that, if they did eat it, I don't see any reason why there would be any problems.

Conversely YANBU, as why even let it happen? It would have taken nothing to have cleaned it all away.

lowlandlady · 25/08/2009 23:10

Oh lordy, I'm the same and say the same to DH but our house is full of all sorts of stuff that we should have child proofed by now for dd (11 months). But because I know our environment isn't perfect I watch her like a hawk.

Everyone has a different ceiling for risk I guess.

FlightHattendant · 25/08/2009 23:17

Depends on how long. I reckon most kids would spit it out if very long...

still - people have died from swallowing lots of their own hair. So (as Mrs Potato head would say ) you Never Know

FlightHattendant · 25/08/2009 23:18

But don't get me started on batteries...I've been going round reclaiming all the button batteries from everything after reading what they can do to you...

scottishmummy · 25/08/2009 23:24

tbh,peristaltic movement through colon and they will poop it out

wouldn't show on xray

and children are v robust and ingest lots of foreign bodies and expel em too

seeker · 25/08/2009 23:26

But batteries are dangerous because they've got poisonous stuff in them. Bits of plastic don't.

And how much hair would you have to swallow to kill you, ffs?

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