How Bad Really Is Play-doh If They Dont' Eat It?

[3groovygirls]

Just curious!

I still let my DD play with it, I just always wash her hands thoroughly. Her GI said the chance of it getting through her skin if she doesn't have a cut or something is soooo ridiculously small I shouldn't sweat it. Just be sure to wash well.

She doesn't seem to react to it. Should I change what I'm doing?

[celiac-mommy]

personal preference, I guess. I never let my kids touch it, or I buy the gluten-free kind our preschool buys. It can get under their nails, suck on the floor, residue on the counter, the list goes on.

There's a recipe on here somewhere for gluten-free play-doh, if you google it.

[EmilyR83]

I have a totally gluten free household, so I personally wouldnt do it. Like the previous poster said, the risk of cross contamination is so high and you can get gluten free dough.

[luvthelake21]

I agree, to me Gluten Free means Gluten Free. Why risk your daughters health on purpose. She is to young to always rember to keep her hands out of her mouth. JMHO

[3groovygirls]

Well, I don't really mean at home, I mean at school. Like sometimes on rainy days they have play-doh recess. That type of thing. It's not like she plays with it every day.

I think I'll look into supplying her school with gluten-free dough. I just never thought it was that bad b/c her Dr. seemed to think the chance was sooooo tiny and remote he made it seem like I'd be overreacting if I made a big deal out of it. KWIM?

[nmlove]

I'm in the same boat. My son goes to school 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. Play-doh's there but I don't think they've used it yet. It's more for letter shaping sometime rather than free play. I think I'll let that go and make note to have him wash his hands well after. For home, I'll buy the gluten-free kind because it does get everywhere! They also don't eat at school except for the monthly party. And his main teacher is a germaphobe so she's constantly wiping everything down.

[NewGFMom]

We thought it would be OK when my son was 3, we just figured we'd wash his hands, right?

What we didn't count on was him playing at the playdough station, then going to a different station and back to playdough. Even with my husband chasing after him (he was parent help the one and only time we tried this) it was very hard to enforce the hand washing.

Then all the other kids are NOT washing their hands and getting gluten all over all the other toys. Kids randomly put their hands in their mouths to bite their nails or whatever. It ends up on the table, and the floor and the room is covered in gluten for the rest of the day. And we really had to soak his nails to get it out of there.

Since it's fairly simple to make gluten free playdough, we ended having the school go that route and they were very accommodating. I just gave his kindergarten an industrial sized bottle of cream of tarter and five pounds of the cheap rice flour from the Asian supermarket and we're going to keep doing the gluten free playdough until he's too old for it. Even though he's six, with a mouth full of loose teeth, his hands are still in his mouth.

Good luck!