Help! My 3 yr old has eaten an orchid leaf

[scarletfingernail]

I'm waiting for NHS Direct to call me back, in the meantime I'm Googling like mad but can't find any info.

It's a normal house orchid (phalaenopsis) and he has had a small bite from one of the leaves. This was about 20 minutes ago. He seems fine, I wouldn't have known he'd done it if he hadn't told me, but obviously now I'm worried.

Only got the thing yesterday. He's never done anything like this before so I had it on the windowsill and naively thought he wouldn't be interested in it. I've moved it out of the way now of course.

Am I right to be worried about a reaction or is it likely that there won't be one?

There are no known poisonous orchids, but there are so many thousands of varieties it becomes virtually impossible to test them all. one of the most popular flavorings however, vanilla, comes from the seed pod of an orchid. so its safe to assume that they are not poisonous, but you should still discourage kitty from chomping orchids, if not for their safety, then for the orchid's sake.

Read more: wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_orchids_poisonous#ixzz1kkYoAzVG

Don't know if this is reliable or not and is to do with cats :( but thought I would post it.......

NHS direct will call guys poisons unit and give you the proper up to date advice (they have this for pretty much every substance you can think of), you wont get that info easily online so step away from the google x

I really doubt a small bite of an orchid leaf will do him any harm, but hopefully NHS direct will ring back soon.

What a weird thing to do - did you ask him why he did it? I bet it tasted foul.

Thanks everyone. NHS Direct called the Poisons Unit who didn't seem to think it was too much to worry about.

They said the worst case scenario would be D&V and if that were to happen then it's a trip to A&E with DS and the plant. They said that was unlikely though and that he may just have a bit of stomach ache or even nothing at all. Once 48 hours have passed it's safe to assume he's ok.

Chipping I really don't know why he did it, I've asked him and he just said "I don't know". I've moved it now, he won't be able to do it again.

Thanks again everyone.