Nature loving baby eating dirt

[Gitana Arts]

My son is 14 months old and LOVES being outside. I generally let him play and explore in our backyard to his heart's content, but he puts everything (dirt, sticks, sand, bark, stones, wading pool water) in his mouth. I used to plop him down in a "clean" part of the yard, but now that he's walking, everything is fair game. I'm not a germ-a-phobe by any means, and I want him to feel comfortable exploring, but I'm worried about just how much dirt, etc. he's ingesting. He doesn't actually chew and swallow---just samples and spits out, but things like dirt aren't so easy to clean out of his mouth. I hate hovering over him and telling him "no" over and over, but I also don't want him to eat anything that could make him sick.

Any other nature loving little ones in the same boat?

[MamatobabyA]

My kiddo was just like this.  He loved putting "nature" in his mouth.  Sticks, rocks, dirt, you name it.  I'm sorta laid back with this kind of stuff.  dirt, eh.  He'll be OK.  I'd bring a drink outside and offer it to him if he gets too much in his mouth.  Honestly, though, he only really experimented a few times.  Once he realized it wasn't food, it stopped.  One thing I was hard core on was the rock issue.  I was so afraid he would choke.  Now he picks it up and just plays with it (ie carries it around).  He will lift it to his lips and shake his head "no", which I think is cute.  I really only had to "hover" around him for a week or so.  Now I can turn my back or read a magazine while he has back yard adventures (we have a pool, otherwise I could leave him unsupervised for a bit).

[newmamalizzy]

Curious, does your son still put things in his mouth a lot in the house?  DD just kind of snapped out of that somewhere around 13 months.  She'll occasionally try to eat a rock, or a sand covered ball, but usually she's trustworthy (at 15 months).  I have found that most of the problems DD and I have had since we moved to the toddler forum have resolved themselves within a few weeks.  I bet this will be the case with your little nature-lover, too!

[McGucks]

This describes our son (15 months) exactly.  After spending an afternoon with me and him, one of my friends commented that he "experiences life through his mouth."  When we went to the beach, after looking around for a couple seconds, hit the ground and took a huge mouthful of sand.  And did so repeatedly over the course of the entire time we were there.  He puts mulch, rocks, sticks, trash, etc. in his mouth.  He used to literally eat board books and we had to put them up for months because he would get so much in his mouth that he'd gag on the pulp.  I think some kids are "mouthers" and some aren't.  It is kind of a bummer because I would like to get him outside more without having to continually take things out of his mouth (which, now that he has 12 or 13 teeth, is hazardous to my fingers).

I remember my mom saying that when I was little I ate cigarette butts constantly (perhaps they should've put them in a trash can, huh?).

He had a chunk of wood stuck in his teeth this morning from the sticks he had to take with him in the bath last night and had to carry around all morning.

Right there with you, mama.  I guess our kids are ho ho.

[Gitana Arts]

Lol, tree-huggers indeed! Or maybe more like tree-eaters. Glad to know I'm not the only one who's little one loves nature.