Swallowed a Tadpole!!!

[sugarmoon]

My 10 y.o. foster son swallowed a tadpole last night (we have a bunch b/c he found some frog-eggs a while back, so we put them in an aquarium and have been watching them grow). Before his social worker and therapist tell me how it is related to his early abuse and is a sign of his emotional instability, I wanted to ask other parents...

Is that a weird but "normal" kid thing, or is it really, truely bizzare?

[ohiomama]

Was he showing off for a group of friends? If that's the case I think it is gross but not something to worry about.

Does he watch TV? There are all these shows lately that have contestants doing all sorts of discusting things like this. Fear Factor and Survivor and similar shows. If he is influenced by these I also would not worry about underlying reasons.

What does he say when you ask him why he did it?

[thejmeister]

The friends thing was the first thing that came to mind here, too. One of my MIL's acquaintances had a teenage son who ate a piece of hamster poo on a dare from his friends. Needless to say, he received a twenty minute lecture on how incredibly dangerous it is, complete with graphic details of Hantavirus (OK, so I think she went a little overboard). Also, Fear Factor is permanently banned at their house.


Teenage boys- don't ya love 'em?

[sugarmoon]

Well, he was completely alone when he did it -- I was putting the baby to bed and dh was in the shower. I think it was total impulse. He says he did it b/c he wanted the frog to grow in his stomach (this is in line with his immature thinking/reasoning abilities). I did talk to some moms at playgroup today who also have older kids in the same school w/ him, and apparently there has been a lot of "I'll pay you a dollar to eat....whatever", so maybe he has seen that. We don't have tv, but he may have heard about those shows at school. Mostly, I think, he just has very poor impulse control.

One of the moms at playgroup told me her son (age 7) just recently at a worm. Ick.

[thejmeister]

I would just monitor him, and don't make a huge deal of it this time. That way, if it happens again, he'll tell you. If it becomes habit, then take him to a developmental psychologist.

[Sierra]

gus'smama, the fact that someone else's foster kid is doing the same kind of stuff our foster son does is giving me some comic and needed relief (although poor tadpole!). Our son also has major impulse control issues and totally immature thinking (he is DD). It can be challenging, can't it?!

[sugarmoon]

Sierra -- Glad you can commiserate! Yeah, I'm not terribly worried about it, but sometimes I worry that his social worker thinks I'm over-invested in "normalizing" his behavior. I mean, I realize that his motives may not always be "normal", but if the ultimate behavior is within the realm of normal, then, who cares, ya know?