Wild flowers safe for baby?

polr

Hello,

I like to do a lot of walks with my 1 year old and on them I like to hand her the odd flower, leaf etc to touch and play with (trying to encourage a love of natue). She's still at the stage of shoving everything in her mouth so I need to give her non-poisonous things but I really don't have much of a clue as to what is and isn't. I've put a list below of things I can remember seeing and I'm hoping that someone will know their stuff and help me out!

Daisy
Clover
Oak leaves
Dock Leaf
Sticky willie (sorry, no idea is this is the right name!)
Buttercup
Elderflowers
Elderberries
Campion
Bluebell
Poppy (the yellow ones)
Ferns
Thistle
Dandelion
Fir and fircones
Horse chestnut leaves

Fox Gloves are dangerous aren't they?

Thank you!

Farway

Oak leaves, not really, heavy in tannin, which is not poisonous, but not too wise either

Foxgloves, certainly are, digitalis, can cause heart failure

Ferns, the spores can give rise to asthma, probably best avoided at such a young age

Guess the rest is down to Google & Wikipedia

rach_k

Elderflower - the green bits of the plant are poisonous, as are the unripe berries. The flowers are okay

Mojisola

Most things we shouldn't eat actually taste awful so that puts most kids off them but it's best to learn a few safe things and only let her have those.

There's loads of stuff on the net like this - https://www.countrylovers.co.uk/wfs/wfsURBFORAGER.pdf

Elsewhere

Some of the things you have mentioned are poisonous but I think unlikely to do much harm in tiny quantities - as well as those already mentioned bluebells and buttercups are bad for you.

I think it's more important to be very careful about fungi, and also members of the umbellifer family (cow parsley, Queen Anne's lace type of plants). Most of them look pretty similar and though some are edible (carrot, celery, fennel etc.) there are some which are very poisonous - hemlock for instance - or irritant to the skin like hogweed and giant hogweed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408578/Walker-Keith-Copper-stepped-poisonous-giant-hogweed-Whitley-Bay.html

REEN

That's a lovely idea, but it might be advisable to encourage her to check with you before handling anything new. Yew berries are pretty but poisonous, and laburnum seed pods look like peas.

GwylimT

Babies and toddlers naturally avoid plants, trust her instincts.

themull1

The Thistle may not be the best idea....

I_have_spoken

I'd be more worried about dog walkers leaving their pet's excrement all over the place so the eggs of parasitic worms are on the plants

kerleytops

Maybe just let baby admire the flowers rather than picking them as one day baby may pick a nettle? Or rare species?
I remember a doting mother watch her toddler pick flowers from my front garden and when I went to chat to her she complained there were too many bees on my flowers and she didn't want her child to get stung!

polr

kerleytops wrote: »

Maybe just let baby admire the flowers rather than picking them as one day baby may pick a nettle? Or rare species?
I remember a doting mother watch her toddler pick flowers from my front garden and when I went to chat to her she complained there were too many bees on my flowers and she didn't want her child to get stung!

HAHA! And what was your response to that?!