Eating everything off the floor

[JamieCatheryn]

Ugh I dislike this stage, mobile and unreasonable. DS is a speck seeking eating machine, he'll bypass a room full of his toys to eat the one leaf, paper, older kid toy piece, dried bit of food, whatever that's around. I'm sweeping and vacuuming 3x a day and he still gets stuff. My friend with 5 kids said some of hers didn't do that. Do yours?

[OceansEve]

all of mine did. DD3 didn't at first so I thought I was lucky this time, but this last week or so it's been straight to the mouth with everything

[j_p_i]

My DD definitely does this. I have to watch her constantly, put up the dog and cat bowls otherwise she'd eat their food. The dog toys go straight in her mouth, along with anything she can fish out of their water! Yum... I wind up sweeping and vacuuming daily, and keep a good eye on her. Luckily, the puppy eats things that are on the floor faster than the baby

[Kelly1101]

Here's my 9-month-old...

Crawl crawl crawl spot object, stop, extend index finger, poke poke (exactly two pokes). Pincer grasp, directly into mouth.

I have about three seconds after the warning "stop-poke" to run over there and deflect whatever it is from going in there.

[claras_mom]

The worst is cat litter. We have to barricade the cat box. She's dumped the cat's food and water more than once, and in general will taste anything she finds.

I don't remember dd1 being quite this eager to eat/taste everything.

[justKate]

Favorite things to taste, in order of preference:
tiny strings
scraps of paper
something that might be dryer lint
bits of food that have escaped the broom
dead grass that has blown in
anything crusty on the side of something else (like trash can, table leg, high chair)

What a wonderful, tasty world to explore!

[mckittre]

Bits of food (discarded cheerios, etc) are a big favorite - on the floor or otherwise, and bits of bark get put in the mouth reasonably often as well, but he'll ignore most of the dirt and non-food items by now (11.5 months old).

[cyclamen]

Oh yes, DD 7mo does it too. She "talks" to the stuff she's about to eat sometimes, so I have warning. She does love tiny strings, paper, cat fur. I try to vacuum up all the cat fur, but then she attacks the cats and gets handfuls that way. Sometimes I just let her eat the paper.... I find strings in her poop. I started offering her fingerfood solids as a way to distract her from eating the yucky stuff. Does it help? I don't let her in the kitchen... too much kitty litter on the floor. She rides on my back if I'm working in there, or goes in the baby cage.

[Kelly1101]

Originally Posted by cyclamen

I started offering her fingerfood solids as a way to distract her from eating the yucky stuff. Does it help?

Well, from my experience, she still eats what is on the floor, but they are a GREAT way to get fifteen minutes to eat breakfast. I put her in the high chair and give her a handful of cheerios and some fruit cut up VERY tiny (I'm so paranoid), and she is totally occupied.

[JayJay]

Oh this made me chuckle and reminded me of the time I'd foolishly left a bowl of cat kibble in the living room for the cats when my little babysitting girl came around (when she was about 9 months, the sweetie!). I look over and there she is with this horrified and "eww omg what did I just eat?" look on her face, sitting by the cat dish! The frown of concern on her was something else I tell ya... And then it's the "oh no...I put it in my mouth; it's gross but for some reason I can't spit it out..." face comes along...

[JMJ]

DD hit this stage just in time for the first big snow. The walkways in our building were just caked in salt/antifreeze. We've had to barricade our shoes in front of the door ever since. Now, she's left eating sock fuzz, paper, and dirt that Daddy tracks in from the back.

[j_p_i]

Originally Posted by Kelly1101

Well, from my experience, she still eats what is on the floor, but they are a GREAT way to get fifteen minutes to eat breakfast. I put her in the high chair and give her a handful of cheerios and some fruit cut up VERY tiny (I'm so paranoid), and she is totally occupied.

I do the same thing. She loves it! Although you are right Kelly, it doesn't deter her from picking up anything she finds on the floor.

[emmaegbert]

lol you guys

my son was more like the middle choice, but this girl (9mo) eats EVERYTHING and she is just amazing what she is able to find on the floor!

[_betsy_]

Baby was also a speck-eating machine, but just before turning 1 she started to listen when I said Not for babies. Not everything went straight into the mouth, and i had a chance to wrangle some stuff away from her. Now that she's 13 months, she inspects tuff and likes to hand me things. Mostly, it's invisible to me, but at least she's not always eating stuff off the floor!