This is something that should be obvious to you all, but might not be.

[conuly]

Don't give your kid just anything to use as a teething toy.

I'm thinking specifically of a 7 month old baby I saw today mouthing on a bottle of hand sanitizer. And no, I don't care if her parents think she can't get into it yet - it's a flip-top, it's in her mouth, she can totally swallow some of that while they're not looking.

This is what Snopes has to say about it. That stuff has a very high concentration of alcohol, because otherwise it can't kill germs. (And there's another thing - you only reach for the sanitizer when you're sure that your hands are filthy. So the outside of the bottle is, I'm sure, filthy. Common sense!)

So when I go up to them and explain how it's incredibly unsafe and even says on the packaging to keep away from children under the age of 3 (well, nearly everything says that nowadays, but you know what I mean) - please just listen. I'm not freaking out for my own amusement. I actually believe that girl was in imminent danger.

(This tops the "I don't care if my kid puts her garbage in every toy in the room, I'll still feed her in here because if you watched your several kids (four altogether) you wouldn't have a problem with the food lying all over the floor" woman of two days ago, by the way. Well, maybe not. She was acting less mature than Ana, who at least understands the need to set a good example.)

Comments

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Not too long ago on the bus, I saw a young couple with a baby, and they were letting the kid suckle on their -- believe it or not -- cell phone. ^^;; I could see that the thing was even powered on, too. The only reason I didn't say anything to them was because I got the feeling that I would have gotten a retort of "Mind your own f***ing business!!!" if I had.

And over a decade ago, I was at the bus stop with a school acquaintance who had a one-year-old daughter. When her back was turned, the little girl rubbed her teething ring against one of the windows of the bus shelter, then just as I noticed, she put it back in her mouth. ^^;;;; I mentioned it to my acquaintance, who just shrugged it off and said she wasn't concerned, that her daughter did that sort of thing all the time. Well, okay, but did I mention that the window in question was extremely soiled and disgusting, with god-knows-what splattered all over it? Yuck.

[conuly]

Ewness.

As for the first person, as soon as that phone gets dropped in the toilet for the third time, they'll see the error of their ways.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I was relatively casual with Meredith when she was a baby. Once she was crawling around she and the dog shared their chew toys with each other, and that didn't bother me -- but that's because it was our dog, and I figured that the household germs wouldn't cause a problem. (Actually she was sick less often than any of the other babies and children I knew, so it certainly didn't hurt her.)

But sharing with or being licked in the face by other animals was out, as was chewing on anything not specifically meant for chewing on and reasonably clean. I certainly wouldn't have let her chew on a container of hand-sanitizer or a cell phone, for exactly the reasons you pointed out. There wouldn't have been any need to, because I always brought toys along whenever we went anywhere, so she always had something safe to play with and chew on. If a toy fell on a relatively clean surface I wiped it thoroughly before I gave it back to her; if the ground was really dirty, she didn't get it back until it could be washed with soap and water.

I've never understood why some parents go out without any toys, and then when their babies get restless they let them chew on anything that's handy, like germy keys or whatever else is in their purse. Good for you for at least trying to educate those parents.

[conuly]

I actually don't mind germs that much. But poison is poison, y'know. I wouldn't stop somebody to tell them that their keys are dangerous to the baby, or the phone is gonna get broken, but this time... I honestly was scared that this kid was going to end up in the hospital.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they'd let the kid use a bottle of liquor as a teething device. It'd probably have a lower alcohol content than the hand sanitizer, if it's a decent hand sanitizer. What's your average baby's alcohol tolerance? I'm not sure as I haven't been giving beer to babies... foolish of me to have not gotten that research done...

[conuly]

You really ought to!

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Not too long ago on the bus, I saw a young couple with a baby, and they were letting the kid suckle on their -- believe it or not -- cell phone. ^^;; I could see that the thing was even powered on, too. The only reason I didn't say anything to them was because I got the feeling that I would have gotten a retort of "Mind your own f***ing business!!!" if I had.

And over a decade ago, I was at the bus stop with a school acquaintance who had a one-year-old daughter. When her back was turned, the little girl rubbed her teething ring against one of the windows of the bus shelter, then just as I noticed, she put it back in her mouth. ^^;;;; I mentioned it to my acquaintance, who just shrugged it off and said she wasn't concerned, that her daughter did that sort of thing all the time. Well, okay, but did I mention that the window in question was extremely soiled and disgusting, with god-knows-what splattered all over it? Yuck.

[conuly]

Ewness.

As for the first person, as soon as that phone gets dropped in the toilet for the third time, they'll see the error of their ways.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I was relatively casual with Meredith when she was a baby. Once she was crawling around she and the dog shared their chew toys with each other, and that didn't bother me -- but that's because it was our dog, and I figured that the household germs wouldn't cause a problem. (Actually she was sick less often than any of the other babies and children I knew, so it certainly didn't hurt her.)

But sharing with or being licked in the face by other animals was out, as was chewing on anything not specifically meant for chewing on and reasonably clean. I certainly wouldn't have let her chew on a container of hand-sanitizer or a cell phone, for exactly the reasons you pointed out. There wouldn't have been any need to, because I always brought toys along whenever we went anywhere, so she always had something safe to play with and chew on. If a toy fell on a relatively clean surface I wiped it thoroughly before I gave it back to her; if the ground was really dirty, she didn't get it back until it could be washed with soap and water.

I've never understood why some parents go out without any toys, and then when their babies get restless they let them chew on anything that's handy, like germy keys or whatever else is in their purse. Good for you for at least trying to educate those parents.

[conuly]

I actually don't mind germs that much. But poison is poison, y'know. I wouldn't stop somebody to tell them that their keys are dangerous to the baby, or the phone is gonna get broken, but this time... I honestly was scared that this kid was going to end up in the hospital.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they'd let the kid use a bottle of liquor as a teething device. It'd probably have a lower alcohol content than the hand sanitizer, if it's a decent hand sanitizer. What's your average baby's alcohol tolerance? I'm not sure as I haven't been giving beer to babies... foolish of me to have not gotten that research done...

[conuly]

You really ought to!