Hello!

The internet can certainly be a cruel place, as this mum has discovered after innocently posting her worries about the new Woolworths Discovery Garden Campaign.

A mum voiced her concerns after receiving her first seedling collectable as part of the supermarket’s new initiative to get kids planting.

She posted a question on the Mouths of Mums MoM.Answers platform:

“Possible danger of toddler swallowing the circle of soil?
Each Discovery Garden collectable comes with a circle of soil. You add water and it swells up and then the soil is to be added to the pot provided. What if a young sibling thought it was a lolly and swallowed it? I’d hate to think what may happen? Anyone have any idea?”

Her question was posted on facebook and the question has received over 800 comments – most of them viciously tearing the poor woman down for even daring to voice her thoughts.

Very few of the commenters actually addressed her concerns at all – most mainly focussed on belittling her and making her feel ridiculous for expressing these worries.

discover-garden-wet-pellet
The soil pellet expanding. What would happen if a toddler swallowed this?

 

Supervise!

Most of the comments called on the mum to make sure that she was supervising when the soil pellets were in reach of little ones.

“Common sense would be ummm to supervise . Like really it doesn’t need a manual to imprint ‘ common sense’

5 Years+ Warning

They also pointed out that the Discovery Garden packaging has a 5 years+ warning:

“Doesn’t the package mention this is for 5y+ Oh and who would leave a toddler unsupervised?”

“OMG yes my daughter looked it and said oh look chocolate and I said no! It is soil don’t eat it.. Oh look! I was supervising my children!!!!!”

“It does say 5+ so if you don’t supervise that’s your own fault.”

Most Kids Eat Dirt

Many pointed out that most kids have eaten dirt anyway:

“OMG there is dirt outside in the yard….a toddler could actually go outside and play in it and eat it too”

Would They Actually Want To Eat The Soil?

Many mums said that they couldn’t imagine kids wanting to eat the soil disc.
“My kids would choke on tiny droplets of water from laughing too hard while they were breathing…. no way this gargantuan peat pellet would have gone down their cake hole!”

“If a kid can swallow this whole and not choke, they need a medal. And good luck chewing enough off to cause any issues. They’re quite hard!”
“It’s actually so big I don’t think it can just be swallowed. Once they take a bite I’m sure they will taste that it’s not candy.. on another note, don’t leave it somewhere your kid can get to it and maybe look after your kid?”

It Happened To Me!

However one mum confirmed the poster’s worst fears sharing:

“My 2yr old opened one today took it to his dad and said ooh yum loll loll. Lucky my hubby took it from him and said no.”

“My 13yr old thought they were cookies sitting on the table. I sat silently waiting to see if she would eat it – she didn’t and before anyone has a hissy fit I would have stopped her before it got to her mouth.”

Bitchy!

And others were just plain rude:

“Put duct tape over your child’s mouth. Crisis averted.”

“It’s dirt, not drain cleaner. Calm down”

“Oh for gods sake! That’s why kids have parents! To do these activities with them! Stoopid cow!”

“How about not giving your kid a circle of soil to swallow then? Like her kid could walk outside and try to swallow rocks, would she be warning people about the dangers of rocks then??”

Plastic Collectables More Dangerous

Many pointed out that the Ooshies and the Mini Shop collectables were far more of a choking hazard:

“Are you kidding? The ooshies were 1000% more of a choke hazard. If you don’t want to use the dirt go get a shovel and use your own.”

Useful Suggestions

Amazingly, there were a handful of useful suggestions:

Firstly put the garden promotions somewhere away from toddler I got a toddler and have mine on top of the microwave so she sent reach it but if ur that worried just give it to the next person”

 

“I did worry about this too but I’ve set up a spot for my boys out of her reach and told them that it’s dangerous for her (I was worried mostly about choking), I can’t have my eyes on her every second and accidents happen but if everyone is aware it can be avoided”

“I mean if it swells inside a child then it’s only going to go straight through them… it doesn’t stay solid. It’s soil. Admittedly you wouldn’t want anyone to swallow it but on the odd cases someone is silly enough to let a young child get their hands on it unattended enough to eat it, I doubt it’s cause any real issues.”

“If your kid eats it, it will swell up to like the equivalent of a mouthful of dirt and their immune system will get a boost just like any kid who has ever eaten dirt.”

“First explain to them, it’s not a lolly, second, wouldn’t you be watching/helping them with it anyway and three, it’s rare that a little bit of dirt is going to be a danger to a child…and four, if you don’t like it, don’t accept it if you shop at Woolies!!!”

“I think if they ate it they will have a full tummy for a while and Poo peat moss. I however doubt the child would eat the whole thing. Younger kids are quick and can get into anything if they want too, supervisions or not they are good, it only takes a second.
Nasty comments to this lady with a legit concern is not on.”

“Funny Ones

And we couldn’t help giggling about some answers:

“If they swallow the dirt make them swallow the seed then let them crap in the garden… It’s be a great fertilizer and you’ll have a bumper crop…”

“Just check the kid in a few weeks for a carrot.”

“Look on the bright side, you wouldn’t need to give the turdler lunch that day. I’m sure there’s more nutrients in that soil disk than chicken nuggets.”

“If they eat the soil pod administer the seeds immediately. Give a glass of water, and plant them in the garden.”

Whatever your response is, it’s a pity that this mum was taken down for expressing a genuine worry.

Share your comments below.

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  • These are so cool for the kids.

    Reply

  • Could you please post the names of the people who attacked the woman – I’m very interested to see who they were.

    Reply

  • Oh honestly people have nothing better to do

    Reply

  • Gosh people can be nasty! I no longer have toddlers so this didn’t even cross my mind but it is a valid point! It does look like big Ovaltine so for a young child I can see how they thing it might be a lolly or chocolate.

    Reply

  • People can be so horrible there is no reason to be nasty to someone.

    Reply

  • I feel sorry for the poor mum who had all those people judging her.
    We got our first discovery garden seeds the other day and we tipped it out at home and all THREE of my kids hands reached out for the “chocolate biscuit” that was included. My kids are aged 8, 6 and 3. I had to tell them the “chocolate biscuit” was in fact a soil pod. The hands quickly retracted!
    So the original mum who had these concerns wasn’t too far off with them! I doubt my kids would have eaten much more than a bite before realising their mistake, but it does prove that kids will assume things about small compact soil pods!

    Reply

  • Faceless cowards, what’s new. Some people just don’t get it.

    Reply

  • I honestly don’t know what is wrong with people. People think they can act horribly on the internet and say and do things they would never do face to face. Why would you call the women who asked a simple question a “Stupid Cow”?

    Reply

  • Although I don’t condone people attacking others for opinions or questions, it certainly highlights the overprotective bubble that people have about everything these days. I’m 100% certain that as a kid I ate dirt from the garden…which would be much more unsanitary and dangerous as eating this. I like the promotion, it is promoting nature play and curiosity around gardening and food growth…very important for kids

    Reply

  • “Brutally attacked”? Really? “Mum gets some criticism and derision about something she posted on social media” is more like it. :/ The question was also posted on the Mum Answers page on this site, word for word.


    • Apologies, I misread, I thought it was originally posted on facebook.

    Reply

  • People are so quick to judge and can be so nasty about it. Simple respect shouldn’t be too much to ask for, but sadly these days it is

    Reply

  • This Mum was just asking a question, not asking to be verbally attacked. There’s probably people out there who were thinking the same thing but too nervous to ask.

    Reply

  • That is just vicious and there is no need for it! That being said I wouldn’t want this to get out of hand and the Woolworths promotion be banned after such a short time because I think its awesome.

    Reply

  • Wow! I’m tipping she regrets going online to pose a question.

    Reply

  • there are so many things that your child can eat. We can’t helicopter over them all the time, we just have to try and teach them not to eat stuff. tricky when they are toddlers and don’t listen – as mine are, but i know that if they put it in their mouth they would soon spit it out

    Reply

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