# houseplants with a toddler?



## mamakah (Nov 5, 2008)

We just moved to a new house that has so much southern light!







There are some very empty spaces that I really really want to put some plants (trees). I have an 18 month old who mostly listens when I ask him not to get into things. How many mamas have plants on the floor and a toddler? Am I just worrying about something ridiculous? Is there anything I should look out for?


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## Letitia (Aug 27, 2009)

I had a ton of plants in the house before having kids. I put as many hooks into the ceiling and hung as many as I could - this was my favorite option. Some are on windowsills of those silly little rectangular windows that are like 6 feet up on a wall - we have a bunch of those. Some are behind a baby fence. Some are on top of big furniture. Some died because I don't take care of them the way I used to. There are none on the ground anymore.

One of the things that I found very frustrating when I was moving my plants was that if you start checking multiple references, pretty much all the common houseplants are listed somewhere as problematic.


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## WhaleinGaloshes (Oct 9, 2006)

I love my houseplants.

For a while (basically for the year she was 1 I guess) I blocked them off with stuff like a small endtable shoved across a corner in front of the pot. Just so she didn't find herself standing right next to one and suddenly decide to do some gardening or tear leaves. After a while, they became commonplace and she didn't really notice them.

ETA: I also used a babygate in one place in the bedroom, where I stuck the gate between a dresser and a wall making a little pocket behind for a tall plant (and my humidifier, if I recall.)


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## fancyoats (Jun 12, 2008)

i've got tons of houseplants. many on windowsills that are within her reach, and several large ones on the floor. i have more problems with my cats digging in them and eating them than i do with my toddler. i don't even think she notices them.

actually, there is one that has gravel-y pebbles in the pot that she used to like to pick out the rocks, but that was last year. it was not really a big deal and she stopped doing it eventually.


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## Dingletwitz (Nov 4, 2009)

I introduced houseplants, as I haven't had them in a couple of years, and dd (2) had a bit of learnin to do about them, as she thought they looked awfully tasty and sampled a couple....glad they weren't poisony-types, but then again she's always grazed in the garden so it made sense she would indoors as well. She understands now that the ones indoors are making oxygen with their leaves so we have to let them work and eat leaves from the store.


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## Areia (Mar 5, 2009)

I can't keep anything green alive, but my mom has tons of plants and my 2 year old is fine with them. She helps my mom water them and take of them, but she honestly doesn't show any interest in them unless my mom mentions them.


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## MissMommyNiceNice (May 1, 2007)

I had already cat-proofed my houseplants, so it wasn't a big deal when DS started getting interested in them.

The biggest thing is that I took big pieces of cardboard and cut it to fit on top of the pots of the floor plants. Then I cut a little slit in it and a round hole around the plant. I did it more for the cats b/c they thought it was a littlerbox, but I found it helpful to keep DS out of the dirt as well.

some of the leaves take abuse, but all in all, he leaves them alone.


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## GardenStream (Aug 21, 2007)

I have 3 large plants that are on the floor and 10 or so that are up on shelves or whatever. My boys are 18 months and 3 1/2 years old and they could both get into any of them that they wanted. I have had a couple instances of dirt playing, but it was never more than a couple times. Just tonight my 18 month old pulled one of them over. It scared him, a handful of dirt landed on the wood floor, no big deal and he hasn't paid any attention to it since.

I don't block of the dirt either, the kids have never showed much interest in them.


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## tarasattva (Feb 6, 2009)

We have a couple of large-ish trees (palm, rubber) in the house and while DD couldn't reach the leaves, she very much liked playing in the dirt.

What we ended up doing was collecting several mid-size rocks that fit nicely together and and put them on top of the dirt (a bit like building a horizontal stone wall). We can easily water the plants, but little fingers can't get down into the dirt.


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