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Dec 9, 2015 at 11:54 comment added Steve Jessop @Graham: I think the effectiveness of washing as a means of removing pesticide residue from orange skin is not immediately visually obvious. YMMV ;-) Dummies are made of materials that are chosen with the intent of being effectively washable (that is, the surface is not permeable/adsorbant/whatever). Oranges may or may not have this property, I don't know, but either way is not established just by looking at it.
Dec 9, 2015 at 11:03 comment added Graham @SteveJessop The problem is that she does have strong grounds to believe it's safe. If it's been washed immediately, then it's safer than the child's dummy or anything else which is "acceptable" for putting in her mouth. It's not just been talked away, it's been clearly removed in front of her eyes. If one partner wants to have a conversation about limiting what their child puts in their mouth, that's a good thing. Manufactured arbitrary objections are not the way to go about this, because it tells the other partner that whims are more important than truth and common sense.
Dec 8, 2015 at 22:36 comment added user7643 @JonStory Not to derail the conversation, but the 30 year life expectancy is heavily skewed by troubles post natal. Handle for that and it's more like 70 IIRC. psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200811/…
Dec 8, 2015 at 18:15 comment added user17408 @SteveJessop I agree that this case seems sensible. I was responding in the spirit of this answer, and because I have experienced the same thing over the course of a long marriage (now divorced, no children) with a person who is over-rational, used to getting their own way, and completely stubborn. This is not the way to have a relationship. "Whether the stone hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the stone, it will be bad for the pitcher." The stone is not going to budge, on this, or anything.
Dec 8, 2015 at 17:30 comment added Steve Jessop @nocomprende: it's a precautionary principle, and people get along fine with it. The mother is uncomfortable with picking up random objects, rinsing them off and sticking them in her child's mouth, even though the most obvious possible dangers have been talked away. That's not a demand to prove anything and doesn't lead anywhere. She's just trying to keep the stuff in her child's mouth down to a shortlist that's probably OK. That'll be in vain once the child can move of course, but parents of babies do like to try ;-)
Dec 8, 2015 at 17:20 comment added user17408 @SteveJessop: because it is impossible to prove that anything is safe this is going to get extremely complex. There are no safe things in the universe, so where will this attitude lead?
Dec 8, 2015 at 14:59 comment added TOOGAM @nocomprende : Yes. That's why we have different words for them. The key distinction is that you need to keep food out of your mouth.
Dec 8, 2015 at 14:18 comment added Steve Jessop Well, she might have a problem with the orange, it's just that she doesn't know exactly what that problem is. This is how hygiene works. You don't avoid things because you know for a fact there's a high load of lethal infectious bacteria on that particular object, you avoid things because could-be-might-be-sometimes-maybe. The mother has no strong grounds to believe oranges are safe, is aware of several ways in which they conceivably might not be safe, and so her instinct is extreme caution.
Dec 8, 2015 at 12:50 comment added user17408 @JamesRyan: There is a distinction between toys and food? My parents never taught me that! Grrr!
Dec 8, 2015 at 11:39 comment added JamesRyan Children put everything in their mouths, unless you are washing it all then why is the orange an exception? Personally I would give her a ball instead because otherwise you are adding confusion over the distinction between toys and food.
Dec 8, 2015 at 9:51 comment added Jon Story @nocomprende - that argument is banded around every time food hygiene is mentioned, but it fails on several counts. For one thing, we didn't evolve to handle pesticides. For another, we as animals were dealing with dirt every day - we're far more sensitive nowadays. And perhaps most importantly, ancient Man had ridiculously high death rates from bacterial infections from dirty food... "humanity" survived, sure, but average life expectancy was <30 years, let's not take their practices as our example.
Dec 8, 2015 at 0:34 comment added user17408 Humans somehow survived before cleanliness was the rule. Nature prepared them to handle some dirt on their food.
Dec 7, 2015 at 10:25 comment added GreenAsJade This answer has nailed the real issue in this question. Of course oranges are OK to play with! Especially washed ones. Something else is going on. Something that would likely take determination and delicacy to fix!
Dec 7, 2015 at 10:21 review First posts
Dec 7, 2015 at 15:07
Dec 7, 2015 at 10:17 history answered Wang-Lo. CC BY-SA 3.0