Last weekend we finally did some planting in our backyard (bad weather and vacations put us a bit behind). I decided this was a great ‘family activity’ and we should involve the kids. So, I brought them along to pick out plants. On the ride home my baby grabbed as many of the flowers as she could get from her car seat and munched away like some wild animal. I had to laugh as I caught her with little pink petals falling out of her mouth.
While I planted my 8 month old was barricaded on a blanket so that she wouldn’t get into anything else. It did not take long for her to break down the barriers I put up and start to grab anything she could – sticks, dirt, bugs and especially rocks. I spent an hour trying to fight it. Babies are not supposed to eat dirt right?! But finally I succumbed and let her eat the garden spade, dirt and rocks – as long as they were not small enough to choke her. I’m sure I will get a Mother of the Year award for only allowing my child to eat LARGE rocks.
I felt vilified a few days later when I read a study saying that infants under one benefit from being exposed to pet dander and cockroach poop. (Does anyone think it is strange they were studying cockroach poop’s effect on babies??) Basically, the idea is that the more germs your baby is exposed to before age one the less sick and allergic they will be later in life. This guidance changes all the time but for now I will use it as an excuse to allow my baby to put random things in her mouth.
Just to add to my credentials for a Mother of the Year award I then took my kids to a bar on Sunday afternoon. It was raining and a band was playing so somehow that made it OK. My son loved dancing and playing pool. And my daughter LOVED the crawfish boil. At only 8 months old she proceeded to shove crawfish in her mouth. She did not mind the spices on the outside or the sharp claws. She just smiled while trying everything she could to crack the hard shells with her brand new teeth. We were able to feed her claw meat and she loved it so much that she would scream if you stopped feeding her. Then I started to panic – “Are kids under one supposed to eat shellfish? I can’t remember. I should have read up on this since my last kid.” I just kept imagining that I had cursed my child with and lifelong shellfish allergy because I thought it was OK to take her to a crawfish boil in a bar at only 8 months old.
Luckily, I have since read that the guidance on this issue has also changed. Children under one can now eat shellfish. Phew! What both of these incidents made me realize is that I have to stop worrying so much and start letting my kids just try things. If they end up with a bit of dirt in their systems or some weird allergy so be it. They need to be kids and explore the world for themselves. After all, I can’t protect them from everything. And frankly, I should bring them to bars more often – they loved it!