Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
“Look, Mama,” the child called, a soft fist held aloft as she ran, delighted, toward her mother. “I found some polka-dot blueberries!”
“Wait, where? Let me see? Those aren’t … Did you eat any?”
The child shrugged and twirled away, fingers closing protectively over a grimy palm that still held some blue orbs of what-mama-said-are-not-really-blueberries.
“Wait! Get back here. I need to see those again … Are you sure you didn’t eat any? They could make you very sick! And …” the woman looked around their deserted picnic blanket. “Where is your brother..? Where’s Eric!?”
“Oh,” the little girl pranced out of reach, and gestured vaguely in the direction of the trees beyond the forest clearing. “There. He found polka-dot strawberry mushrooms!”
Note: Inspired by a true story of a family I know, whose summer picnic ended up with a call to Poison Control, an ambulance, and two children in the Emergency Department. One child was fine. The second child eventually got better. Mama still can’t touch berries or mushrooms. Teach your children about the dangers of foraging and instruct them to not pick or eat (!!) any plant they don’t show you FIRST. …
For Terri’s Sunday Stills: Danger
Na'ama Yehuda 
Great teaching lesson. Well done, you.
Adele Ryan McDowell
AdeleRyanMcDowell.com Adeleandthepenguin.com MakingPeacewithSuicide.com Channeledgrace.com
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Thank you, Adele … It doesn’t take much or long for kids to get into danger …
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Wow, incredible to read this account…a lot of “natural” plants look edible but are deadly. I’m sorry this was based on a true story…your writing is beautiful and I’m glad the children were ok. Thank you for sharing this, Na’Ama. ..I shared to my Facebook page and twitter!
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Yay for your sharing this!
If it helps other children be taught to not touch/eat things they think are edible but might well not be … then it will be good indeed!
In the story this is based on, all it took was two minutes out of sight … They kids were okay, thanks in part to the mother’s quick thinking once she realized what had happened–she didn’t know how much they consumed, but she took no chances. Neither did Poison Control.
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Yea, and especially with fungi that aren’t easily identified.
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Totally! Indeed, it was the mushrooms that did most of the harm … the berries ended up less of an issue (and tasted yuck so none were really ingested), but the mushroom created more issues … Could’a ended up a lot worse, though! The story is fictionalized a bit but the event — and the lesson — are real! Na’ama
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Um, let’s see, a polka-dotted strawberry. I’m guessing that’s Fly Agaric. Can make a person real sick. Can also cause hallucinations.
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I honestly don’t know exactly what the mushroom was, only that from what I understood from the mother of the actual family, it indeed had polka dots and was reddish. The child was quite ill. Maybe it indeed was what you wrote!
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Sounds like it.
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Yep!
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A very salutary piece of writing.
Kids, you have to watch them every minute…no make that every second….
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Totally. In the real story that inspire this one, the mother reportedly took her eyes off of the children for two minutes, if that.
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Yeah…..two minutes is all they need (sigh).
Apparently a child has no sense of danger until about the age of 5 (I think)……and then when they get to adolescence they forget it all over again! (bigger sigh)
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A ‘sense of danger’ requires being able to see around corners … which requires a working frontal lobe … and Adolescents aren’t known for having a very functioning one (let alone toddlers, whose frontal lobe is, literally, in its infancy. .. 😉 )
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At least you can pick up a toddler and tickle their tummy….😃
(though picking up an adolescent by their neck did cross my mind more than once..…..)
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Oy! No picking ANYONE by the neck, please … 😉
(Not that it would be plausible given the height of some teens I know personally …) 😉
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I restrained myself….Anyway Nature had it’s own balance, said adolescents became parents……😉
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LOL
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