In the warm season, children often play outside. Their imagination is fired with things they find there. For example, the game “cooking a meal” often involves berries, leaves or other plant parts. However, such a meal is sometimes difficult to digest. Younger children are often tempted by the pretty colors and shapes to put plant parts in their mouths.
Annual cases of poisoning
Each year, nearly 100,000 people call poison information centers suspecting that the child in their care may have been poisoned – in nearly 20,000 cases, this suspicion is confirmed. In 9 out of 10 cases, children under the age of 6 are affected – especially the 1 to 3 year olds who like to explore their environment with their mouths.
It is true that household chemicals – cleaners, dishwashing detergents and the like – are the main cause of poisoning, followed by medicines. But especially among 1- to 4-year-olds, plants also play a major role, especially those with attractive berries.
The good news is that the vast majority of cases of poisoning are mild – in three quarters of cases there are no complaints because the amount of toxic substance ingested was very small, and the remaining cases are mostly mild. This applies in particular to poisoning with plants. Nevertheless, in households with small children up to elementary school age, poisonous plants in the home and garden should be avoided.
Which plants are poisonous?
Many poisonous plants do not taste particularly good, so children quickly spit out the leaves, stems and fruits. However, modern cultivated forms often have this characteristic toned down – for example, the berries of today’s privet hedges often taste far less bitter than their original form. W
hat parts of the plant are harmful to health varies from species to species. Each plant has different constituents, degrees of danger, and effects.
Symptoms range from skin irritation to stomach upset with nausea or mild vomiting to – fortunately rarely – circulatory collapse and respiratory paralysis. As a rough rule of thumb, children can eat 1 berry of any native plant, even if it is poisonous, without harm. (A selection without claim to completeness)
- Poisonous plants in the garden and in the wild: in first place is aconite (Aconitum), followed by yew (seeds and needles), belladonna (and other nightshade plants), henbane, hemlock, autumn crocus (Colchicum, often confused with crocus), datura, angel’s trumpet and miracle tree. Slightly less toxic, but still potentially dangerous in larger quantities, are spurge, laburnum, foxglove (digitalis), raw beans, rhododendron, oleander, arum, lily of the valley (leaves are often confused with wild garlic), lampoon flower, ivy, and tree of life (thuja). From privet, crabapple and rowan (mountain ash) up to 5 berries are safe.
- Houseplants: potentially toxic are cyclamen, coral bush, rubber tree, birch fig (Ficus benjamini), baobab, dieffenbachia. The white milky sap of poinsettia, which belongs to the spurge family, is poisonous only in wild forms; in cultivated species, this causes at most mild irritation of the gastrointestinal tract.
Prevent poisoning with plants
- Find out whether a plant is harmless before you buy it.
- Check whether listed plants grow on the way to school and in the play environment of your children. Advise and determine the plants can e.g. gardeners, foresters and florists, possibly also pharmacists.
- Discuss poisoning risks gently with your children and teach them not to try plant parts they do not know.
