garden safety - common toxic plants (daffodils, etc.) - am I paranoid?

[katyusha]

Dear All,  I am wondering if I am too paranoid? I have just planted our garden today with tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, hellebores, etc. I felt really happy until I read the notes saying they are poisonous if ingested and may also irritate the skin. I have a 2y 8m toddler and a 4m baby and am now worried! I realised that I have not planted these common plants previously because of this, but forgot today when I saw them at the garden centre. It is in our small front garden and my kids never really play there. Shall I leave the plants as is or is it better to dig them out?

I've explained it to my toddler that these plants cannot be eaten, but don't know what she'll remember.

In fact i sort of over-reacted. She was helping us out in the garden and we were looking at the plant labels together, when I read this info about toxicity. The labels were washed, but as she likes to suck her thumb and the labels can never be 100% clean, I made her wash her hands again. I am asking because I know I am usually quite anxious and have an OCD, so maybe I am over reacting? I guess the neighbours have similar plants and none of the front gardens are fenced, but then I never let my kids out unsupervised. What do you guys think?

[anna*]

If the kids don't play there, I'd say you're fine.

[linfran]

There are certain plants are dangerous - with daffs obviously if they are eaten or the sap from the stems can irriate the skin.  I know labernum and foxgloves are also dangerous, the rhs would be bound to have a list of the dangerous ones on their website.

When ds was little we would tell him he didn't eat anything from the garden unless we gave it to him on a plate - that worked for us!

[katyusha]

Thank you all! The commonest of garden plants are on the toxic plants list and are everywhere, parks, gardens, etc. I'll try the plate idea, which sounds good. I'm also going to plant edible plants at the back so that'll be safe. I figured overall it is a good thing to explain to DD that plants are not safe to eat. (At the moment she thinks poisonous things are like in Snow-white, the prince will come and all will be better). Spoke to GP as part of another visit and apparently you'd have to consume quite a bit of it too be really dangerous, with bulbs being the worst part. Main thing to watch out are yew tree berries and similar, which we thankfully don't have. So I did over-react and will try to make sure we'll still do gardening with DD as a family. Many thanks!