9mth old playing in garden - dangerous ?

[hermykne]

he is into everything and everything is in his mouth, grass,sand, stones, bark, i think a baby slug.
should i worry or prevent him from it, its so handy big sis and him outside playing!, frees me up.
any ideas? TIA

I don't know how baby humans have survived all these millenia without choking on every other stone on the ground...

anyway, has your DS had his tetanus jabs? In theory a child could get it from eating soil, but I don't think it's actually been documented... or not often.
I let my 10 month old put stones in his mouth then extract them quickly, cheeky monkey, he does it just to get a response. There is a choking risk, but he hasn't gagged on a stone yet, seems to figure out pretty quick that they aren't worth trying to swallow....

Wouldn't worry about sand, personally, slugs only if you use slug killer pellets. Bark... do they spray it? I would think minimal risk there, too. Better than the stones, anyway!

Well, wouldn't leave him unsupervised...

do you mean unsupervised, as you mentioned that it frees you up?

I would not let my baby play outside unsupervised - too risky IMO

no i'll be around but i mightnt have my eyes on him all the time - weeding, cleaning, running inside and out again.

It's up to you, hermykne. I let my DS out of my site very briefly sometimes. I try not to, but it's often very awkward to swoop him up & take him with me if I just want to fetch the trowel or secateurs. If he swallowed a stone (& heaven knows he loves to tease me with stones!) I'd never forgive myself. He has encountered nettles & tipped over, but I rate those as small risks. We used to put DS1 into a playpen while gardening, DS2 sometimes goes into the walker.

I assume you don't have a pond or you have it securely covered???

no pond, just the stones and plants really that are likely targets for him

Do you know which plants (if any?) are poisonous? Variegated species & ivy are often poisonous. Presumably you don't spray in the garden, or spread slug pellets around?

zebra
i do spray - against it in principal - but i blooody hate it when i see my palnt being eaten so out comes the zapper.
no pellets though and i think ds had one of those awful creatures the other day - i sort grabbed and didnt look.
he is as quick
dd is only 2 + 7mths - too young, but does she does shout mummy help if he gets into something he shouldnt indoors, she is actually good like that.

Hermykyne (hello!) ds often plays outside (well, crawls round stuffing grass in his mouth!) in our garden, I kin of run over to check every time I think "I should be watching him closer!" Can see him and dd from kitchen window though. Only things to worry about are cat poo and chemicals though, I think....

I also used to put dd in playpen under a tree for shade when I wasn't around - would never leave her unattended outside even for a few seconds. It seems really unfair to me to put your older child in a position of responsibility. I'd rather have safe, happy children than a weeded garden anyday.

Years ago a friend of mine caught her toddler chewing something in the garden. She managed to extract it from his mouth... it was a bloody great slug. ugghhhh....