What's up with this??

[NancyJ_redo]

Okay, so I know I'm a fairly paranoid new mom, but even this seems beyond the realm of what's even remotely okay...

I just came back from the grocery store and when I was in the produce section a woman was walking around there with a baby in the Bjorn, and the baby was sucking/chewing on one of those thin produce plastic bags. I discreetly watched them for a while as she cruised around the produce section and wondered whether I should say something. It was clear that the mom knew the baby was sucking on the plastic bag, and I really had to stop and wonder if I was being overly concerned. But I'm pretty sure I'm not being paranoid here - imagine yourself as an adult sucking on one of those thin produce plastic bags, or any plastic bag for that matter, and how easily it could get in the back of your mouth and into your throat/breathing passage. With a baby, it could be fairly tricky getting it out of the mouth if it got back there, and I'm not sure why anyone would even want to tempt fate.

What's up with this??

[dogmom]

Uhh, not that I'm admitting to anything, but it goes something like this....

You pick up a plastic bag, the baby grabs it and starts playing with it. The baby, who was just screaming, stops. And he seems so happy. So you let him play with it. Next thing you know he is sucking on it. You take it away, he screams, you give it back. Anyway, you get the idea. If, and I don't admit to this, I let him play with a bag, I would make sure it didn't get bitten off or too far in the mouth.

My rule of thumb about chewing on things has quickly devolved to this: Is it a shape and size that will COMPLETELY block the airway? If not, I keep an eye on it. Otherwise, he would never had gotten a chance to try cherrios, which he now loves. Of course it helps that I am a nurse and I ask my colleagues in the emergency room what they see. I tend to be paranoid about things I know happen.

Jeanne
Mom to Harvey
1/16/03

[lizajane]

ZOIKS!

i think that is one of those things that would have made me speak up. i don't believe in butting in to others' parenting choices, but i feel like when safety is concerned- who cares if someone thinks that i am a jackass.

i probably would have pretended to think that she didn't notice. i would have said, "oh! ma'am- excuse me, your baby has gotten a hold of a plastic bag and put it in her mouth. my son puts everything in his mouth these days, and i always get worried he will choke on something. so i hope you don't mind me telling you. i just always get so distracted in the store myself and i was sure you would want to know."

[NancyJ_redo]

Your response made me laugh, even if you didn't admit to anything :)

And you know, I have to say that I'm MUCH more paranoid than DH, and he's a doctor. Nothing much seems to concern him, while I'm concerned about a whole lotta stuff when it comes to DS. You all in the medical field might be onto something...

[C99]

I'm w/ Jeanne....

[mama2be]

You weren't shopping at the Raleigh Sam's Club were you...did the mom look tired, over weight and exhausted...did the baby look absolutely adorable, "tan skin" and spoiled????

Could it have been me that you saw...whose baby sucked on the film??? The bag of chips...and anything else that I put in the cart...I think he might have licked the wine bottle too :)....

I've seen a lot with kids and what they choke on and what they shove in their nose, mouth (an other places)...but for some odd reason that would not have bothered me if they were mobile in a store. BUT on the floor or something playing with a bag scares me to death!!!!

LOLIPOPS scare me...I saw a child choke from a father putting his lolipop in a babies mouth...the massive suck action that babies have dislodged that thing right down her throat...it wasn't pretty!!!!

[Torey]

I think I like Liza's suggestion.

[lizamann]

Too funny, Neve!

My cats like to chew on those bags, sometimes end up ingesting them, and throwing them back up later on. It's not pretty.

[dogmom]

I see a thread here with Neve and I. We both have dogs. No one with dogs can be phased at what those creatures will chew on/ingest. I just had a friend whose son's dog ate the bottom foot of a wood door. I repeat, the bottom foot of a wood door. Not that my son is a dog, but you actually wind up suprised what they DON"TA put in their month, and very relieved babies don't have nearly as destructive teething as puppies.

I think I would have been fine with Liz pointing out the bag to me. I would have said something like, "Yes, thank you, I'm keeping an eye on it." Of course that is if I ever did something like that.

Of course I had this strange habit in nursing school of reading the "Mortality & Morbidity Weekly" from the CDC. That's where I developed my phobias about latex balloons, peanut butter, hotdogs, and buckets with even small amounts of cleaning fluid in them. (Nasty chemical pneumonias, not drowning.) We all got our own scary things.


Jeanne
Mom to Harvey
1/16/03

[lizajane]

neve- you do not look tired, over weight and exhausted! you are one cute momma. :) but you did make me laugh!