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As a parent of a child that likes to learn about new things by putting them in her mouth, I wanted to share some information that isn't as commonly known as I once thought. I want everyone to be aware of how toxic the oleander plant is.
I've
always needed to keep an eye on my daughter because even at the age of six she will surprise me and chew on things she shouldn't. When she was a toddler it was much worse. Thankfully, at that time we were living in a place where none of the plants in our yard were toxic. I know I had to be constantly vigilant with her to try not to miss anything going in her mouth, but I wasn't always successful in catching her before putting some plant part in her mouth. Since then, we have moved and there are several flowering shrubs in our backyard here in the sub-tropical climate where we live that I wasn't totally sure of the identity of. Although I thought I recognized all of them, it took my mother showing up to think about it and point out that three of the shrubs were the extremely toxic oleander.
If you live in a cooler climate, you may not need to concern yourself with this flower and its poisonous ways, but it might be good to know what it looks like just in case. My husband ripped them all out today while I was at work, so I can't post my own photo like I planned! But here is a link to
some oleander images. The whorled leaves were what convinced me that this was the same plant I had in my backyard!
Thankfully, my daughter hasn't eaten any plants in ages, and my son, who is younger, never picked up that habit, so they did not poison themselves in the six months it took me to make this discovery! The advice I would like to impart here is that the oleander plant is EXTREMELY toxic. Every part of the plant is toxic, and a single leaf is enough to potentially kill a small child. And to me the real kicker is that the smoke can also be very toxic. That's why we made the decision to remove the shrubs in our yard. Everyone may be past the stage of tasting plants at my house, but the fact that something beyond my control, like a fire, could be deadly to us because of the fumes led me to the decision not to have it around.
There are many plants that can have adverse affects if ingested, and if you are a parent who has a "taster" like I do, you might want to familiarize yourself with them if you haven't already.
Here is a link to some plants that you may not want to have around, or at least not at toddler level.
(July 2008) (
