Eating paper

[GillL]

DD keeps eating paper. I try to keep it out of her reach but she always seems to get hold of a leaflet or envelope from somewhere (normally cos dh leaves it laying around). Is there anything in the leaflets etc that could cause any problems?

Some very nasty solvents are used in printing. In theory most evaporate in drying, but nonetheless I would consider inks fairly toxic. I don't mean she'll keel over after nibbling one flier, but I wouldn't consider it a harmless habit. Try and keep printed stuff away from her if at all possible.

Paper glue contains, IIRC, maltodextrin, which is used in foodstuffs as a fairly sweet bulking agent, so it's relatively harmless - the worst it would cause is diarrhoea.

Thanks, I'll do that - and I'll tell DH to do the same.

My dh chews paper all the time. It's repulsive and much noisier than chewing gum. [bleeeuuurch emoticon]

Hope its not too toxic - dd has just munched her way through half a board book - sitting in bouncy chair while I was cooking tea!

my dd used to eat board books, never really worried about it lol!!!!

I imagine that board books and others aimed specifically at toddlers would use harder-wearing (and therefore possibly safer) inks than leaflets printed at the lowest possible cost. I don't recall ever having the ink on a board book rub off onto my hands, but that has happened many times while carrying leaflets in my sweaty paws.

Quite alarming once, turned away from ds in Homebase - knowing he was perfectly safe in the trolley - only to find his face streaked up to the eyebrows with orange and green when I turned back! Didn't know what on earth it was until he grinned at me and I saw the remnants of a leaflet in his mouth.

useless fact: the least-toxic UK newspaper is the FT