Do you feel that it is ok to let your baby play in the sand at the beach?

Do you feel that it is ok to let your baby play in the sand at the beach?

Beach sand has lots of things in it that has washed up from the sea.

Do you feel that it is safe to let your infant baby play in the beach sand? Many things wash up onto the sand on the beach that could be very unsanitary for our children. No to mention they could get hurt from playing in the sand at the beach. I know that we should not be too scared to let our children have fun, but at the same time we must be safe when doing so.

We don't live near the ocean, but we do have a sandbox, and also a yard with lots of dirt, leaves, sticks and so on.

When my older daughter was a baby, I didn't have to deal with all these issues like I've had to with my younger daughter. Since she was our only child, we simply delayed getting the sandbox until she'd reached the age of no longer wanting to put everything into her mouth.

But our younger daughter was born into a family with a five-year-old big sister who loved playing in the sandbox and also digging in the dirt. And our younger daughter, soon after becoming mobile, enthusiastically jumped (well, actually she crawled, or slithered) right in there and loved it, too.

I quickly realized that my baby's favorite way of connecting with the universe was by shoving large handfuls of it into her mouth, continuously. I often had to wipe mud out of her mouth when we came into the house. There was no point in doing it when we were still outdoors, because she'd just be shoving more in there five seconds later.

I also learned that chewing on sticks is a completely harmless pastime, and it certainly seemed to fill a deep and ravenous need in my little one. By the way, she's five today and very healthy!