eating strange things

Yep, my 10 month old thinks its hilarious to crawl full speed toward any small object on the ground and then look at me if she gets to it before me.  I swear she just thinks it's the funniest thing to watch me run.  She picks up little things, shakes her head No and then laughs as her hand heads to her mouth.  It's actually cute but man she keeps me on my toes! 

My three year old is pretty good about picking things up when asked but if not supervised every second it's an issue.  Basically, I have packed away any toy that the baby could possibly choke on.  I do a "sweep" of toys every couple days to make sure nothing small has snuck into the collection (which it usually has).  The rule of thumb is if it can fit through a toilet paper roll it's a choking hazard.  Amazing how many toys fall in this catagory.  Not to mention the little bits of play-doh that fall off the craft table....just yesterday I packed up all the play-doh because I had to break out the vaccuum too many times in one day!  With older kids, they may be resistant to having small toys put away but if they have the option of keeping these things on a shelf in their bedrooms it could work as long as the rest of the house was clear.  It is definitely an on-going cycle though.  Hope this helped!  Good Luck!

She does have her own room but we usually don't let Sophie go in the older girls rooms unless they let her. They don't like her slobbering on their things and moving and just touching their stuff and I totally understand. It's only when they leave stuff out! and I know the whole dog food thing is gross but it won't kill her especially because after trying a piece and not liking the taste, she probably won't eat more. What worries me is a hair clip or bead laying around that she can choke on!!

it's actually pretty common. i had a niece that we called a goat. my 5 yo STILL likes to chew on things. just last night i conviscated a mater squinky.

does your older child have their own room? is so, maybe tell your 6 yo that until s/he's ready to pick up, all the toys have to stay in the room.

Kids do these things out of curiousity, because they want to know how something would taste if they had it in their mouth!!