my kid just stuck an unwashed egg in his mouth and sucked on it for up to 4 minutes!

[Angela902]

oh my god, I went out to get more eggs, I don't know how long he was doing that. He's only 4, I'm really freaked out.

Has anyone had this happen? Is there anything I could do to prevent poisoning if there was salmonella on that egg?

I'm sure I am not the first person this has happened to...I just have no idea what to do.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm sure he'll be fine! Actually I never wash my eggs and while I don't put them in my mouth and suck on them, I do handle them and have never had any issues.

This is my personal (and very humble) opinion: it is the disinfecting of the modern world that is the problem. The bacteria have always been there and always will be. Allowing a child to build up a healthy resistance is far better than disinfecting everything. When the body has not had any exposure to bacteria, it reacts badly when it finally gets exposed to a large amount. By allowing a natural resistance via small amounts, when a large amount is encountered, the body knows how to deal with it.

Example one: When DD was a baby, she, like most babies, liked to crawl around and put everything in her mouth. I try to keep a clean house but am not a freak about it so in doing this, she ingested various bacteria at various times. She did not have a single cold or other illness during her first two years of life. Meanwhile, I had a friend with a baby girl the same age, who was paranoid about bacteria. She followed that baby around, snatching everything she touched out of her hands before it could get to her mouth, and cleaning constantly with bleach and other disinfectants. I literally do not remember every seeing that baby when she didn't have a runny nose.

Example two: I once worked with a lady from France and among a group of us, a conversation came up that was very revealing. It started when a co-worker told about having to throw out 3/4 of a large casserole because it had sat out on a counter for "about an hour". The French woman and I looked at one another and both said "Well, I would have eaten it". The French woman went on to explain that food is routinely left out overnight in France. It is cooked on the stove and left there until next morning because putting hot food into the fridge is so energy inefficient. But here's the best bit: she has NEVER had food poisoning. And, she said, food poisoning is almost unheard of in France. This meshes with my experience (I've never had it either). If food TASTES bad, I don't eat it. But as long as it tastes alright, I figure it probably IS alright.

Getting off my soapbox now

. I'm sure your son will be fine!

 

[Angela902]

Thank you so much for that.

I believe everything you've said, it's just that in the moment and for about a half hour afterwards I panicked, because I just had no idea of what countermeasure I could possibly take.

Eventually, I forced some mouthwash in there (he would not cooperate it the least and fought me with just about everything he had) and it probably did no good at all, because of course he has no idea how to gargle and wasn't about to cooperate with that any more than with letting the stuff in in the first place.And it had already been about a half hour before I got it in his mouth,
and he'd been swallowing in the time in between while crying like crazy because I'd yelled at him that the egg was dirty.

You are right that this is probably not his first exposure to salmonella. We have been keeping chickens since he was a baby and tracking poop and dirt across the kitchen floor all that time. I tried but failed to keep the house anywhere near clean enough as I wanted it or it should have been. We had cats, we had sick chickens in the dining room, you name it. So these things have been on his hands, and his hands did go into his mouth. I need to remember that these things are microscopic, and it doesn't take sucking on an egg to ingest them.

I breast fed him for 3 years so hopefully that with the dirty house gave him a great start!

I lived in France for awhile too, and learned with shock that they did indeed leave food on the stove over night. Chicken soup even.

When you're feeling paranoid, you throw the food you forgot on the stove for 9 hours away. When you're feeling broke or that you worked just too **** hard on that from scratch cooking, you eat in anyway, especially if there are tomatoes involved, and hope for the best. I haven't gotten sick any of those times I took that risk either.

Thanks so much for the advice to chill. It's all I can really do anyway, I think.

Angela

 

[cassie]

Exposure to bacteria is good for kids. That is how they build an immune system.

 

[NovaAman]

Heck... I cook dinner about 6, and I routinely leave it on the stove until I go to bed... Not dairy products mind you...

My kids are the dirtiest grossest things ever. I swear. They are boys, and it seems that nothing is off limits in their grossness. LOL. AND rarely are they sick.

 

[MeatKing]

I agree with the others, I'm sure he will be just fine

My dd sucked on a unwashed robins egg for quite a long time before I noticed.. oooppps

It was an old egg, left in nest. So after babies hatched ect. I brought egg and nest down for kids to see.
Well youngest dd 3 at the time, new eggs had to be kept warm to hatch.. So she had it in her mouth keeping it warm..

She was fine, crazy girl!! I explained the whole this egg is no good anymore, but she still wanted to hatch it..

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I would not be worried. Factory eggs can get[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] salmonella because of the horrible conditions and overall yuck and even then salmonella in eggs is rare. You would really have to try hard to have salmonella in your backyard eggs. I never wash mine and I rarely refrigerate them and for a $5 dare I'll eat one raw right now.[/FONT]

 

[JeffOeuf]

If a freshly laid egg is the grossest thing your son ever puts in his mouth, you will be one lucky lady.

 

[Glenmar]

If a freshly laid egg is the grossest thing your son ever puts in his mouth, you will be one lucky lady.

 

[littlethorn]

If a freshly laid egg is the grossest thing your son ever puts in his mouth, you will be one lucky lady.

/agree Kids put pick up and eat worse things than that, play with toy boats in the toilet (there is even a commercial showing this....) etc. I would not be worried.