Can 18 month olds identify fungi?.....

[growingthings]

Kids honestly you take your eye off them for one minute....

I'm no mushroom forager so it wasn't learned behaviour if you see what I mean, and she found some fungi growing in the garden, promptly put them in her mouth and scoffed the lot!!

All we had was what was left on her chin to identify with and that wasn't enough so a trip to A&E for two hours of observation, and this morning a bit of a runny tummy, so inedible but not poisonous...

I got bought a fungi identification book for my birthday I have decided to make sure that the next time fungi spring up in my garden I'll get to identify them so if it ever happens again (it won't cos I'll be stitching socks onto the ends of all her tops if it does! !) I won't have a terrifyingly rushed trip to the A&E wondering if she'd been poisoned!!

If we had be out in the woods they said that it would have been a different thing all together, but in a cultivated garden the risk of her having anything that could poison her was very slim thank God, but still I seem to have brought forth a child who puts everything that she finds into her mouth, five minutes after the fungi she was eating a crayon !!

I'm off out now to see if any more have sprung up this morning after last nights rain....

Lorna x

[Alice Abbott]

That is a worrying thought!

I've tried using one of those books to identify the fungi we find around here and I'm still not 100% sure of what I see. So far I have collected and dried mushrooms but I must admit I went out collecting with a neighbour who pointed out the right ones. We DID learn about fungi on one of my college courses but I can only easily recognise a couple of really lethal ones (I don't think they even grow in Europe) and that's because they are so ugly you wouldn't probably dream of eating them anyway. But I know there are a few sneaky ones which look perfectly innocent.

This is an area renowned for cepes but to me they look so similar to some others which aren't edible (and even grow in similar locations) that I still wouldn't pick any without having someone along to help. Our daughter is still (she is now three and a half) inclined to put lots of stuff in her mouth and is forever chewing leaves and grass. I'm going to keep a closer eye on what she picks up - I've noticed some fungi first thing in the morning in the meadowy bit of the garden. Thanks for the pointer and I hope your little one is none the worse for her adventure

[Green Aura]

I hope she's feeling OK now! One of the downsides of an inquiring mind (and tastebuds apparently).

[MuddyWitch]

I seem to have brought forth a child who puts everything that she finds into her mouth

Yep, we had one of those! She tryed every plant in the house, despite our best efforts at putting them out of her reach! She survived & is about to go to uni to study geology where they encourage her to occassionally 'taste' the rocks!

Although these incidents are terrifying at the time, (and trust me I remember vividly! ) she will be fine.

MW

[red]

ack1 that must have been scary at the time! glad she is ok

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

glad to hear she's ok, it's horrible when they do something like that, it makes us count our lucky stars that George does't eat everything he comes across, ok we would prefer that he didn't climb on everything and then run off the surfaces, but a broken bone is far less worrying in my eyes than eating something wrong (although having never had a broken bone, and somehow managing to get the boys to the ages they are at without major injury, I maintain the right to change my opinion on that!)

Sarahx

[Russian Doll]

GLAD SHES OKAY...DOES REMIND ME OF MY ZACHY THOUGH..HE WILL EAT ANYTHING NON EDIBLE BUT WONT EAT FOOD LOL

HIS LATEST CONQUEST WAS TO SWALLOW THREE WHEELS OFF HIS TRAINS

[mrsflibble]

soph's more of a sticking stuff up her nose kinda girl, but those mushrooms must have scared the hell out of you!

[growingthings]

she survived,

I don't think that she has learned too much from her experiences I caught her eating a crayon this afternoon!

Although the thought of blue poo is far preferable to a hallucinating 18mth old

[snapdragon]

If toddlers have the 'racial memory' for edibles not yet educated out of them, can we use them like truffle hounds?

[Bonniegirl]

Glad she's ok!
It doesn't stop you know! My 16yr old(at the time, he's 17 now) and his mates decided to drink bottles pf black food colouring jus to see what the result would be!
I found out when I put my computer on and the photographic evidence was my screen picture!

So be prepared for it to get worse or adopt out now! lol

PS I knew a fella who though he was a mushroom.............................he was a real fun guy!

[Millymollymandy]

Hello stranger! Hows things? Your son sounds like a fun guy too!