A trip to the beach is all about the sun and fun until you become a parent. Parenting a newborn will make you strive for a vacation and the beach will look like the perfect place for a getaway. While you find the sea and the sunsets beautiful, your baby will find a new delicacy to feast on, beach sand!! The babies who refuse new food or even a bottle if the taste is slightly different will happily eat sand. Whatever this love of the babies for sand, it is dreadful to us parents. You cannot avoid the beach because your baby eats sand so keep reading to know how you can stop your baby from eating sand.
CONTENT
1. How to stop the baby from eating sand?
2. Why does the baby eat sand?
3. What happens if your baby swallows sand?
4. Can eating sand make the baby sick?
5. Is beach sand unsafe for babies?
1. How to stop the baby from eating sand?
There is no 100% effective way to stop the babies from eating sand. Babies and toddlers are curious about their surroundings and beach sand is not something they are familiar with. This new stuff which has a different color and texture makes them want to taste it. Here are few tips to prevent your baby from eating sand. But trust me, at least for once, you will have to wipe some sand off their mouth.
- Create a personal play area with a sheet.
Does not matter how much you will ask your baby not to eat sand, he will be dedicated to tasting it if he is directly sitting on the sand. He will feel sand on his legs and will be taken over by the natural curiosity to taste it. So what you can do is take a sheet that you can put on the beach and create a sand-free play area for the baby. As the baby is not feeling sand on his body, you can do a good job of keeping him distracted from the sand.
A fitted sheet is a great beach hack when you are with a baby. Spread it upside down and place some weights to create the perfect personal play area for your baby.
- Offer a safe distraction
As I said, babies eat sand mainly because of their curiosity. If you offer them a distraction, they will not think about eating sand. Bring a toy or two to the beach. These toys should not be the ones he plays with every day as they will not serve the purpose of a distraction. You do not need to buy new toys. Literally, anything in your house from a spatula to a cereal box can keep your baby engaged for hours.
If your baby is old enough to touch and play with sand, give him some tools that he can use at the beach such as a small shovel and a bucket. You can teach older babies activities such as building sandcastles. Then the baby has many things to be curious about rather than putting sand in his mouth.
- Keep a close eye on your baby
Babies need to be close to you and supervised all the time but at the beach, you have to be extra careful. Never let the baby play alone and engage in some other activity. The baby should always in your view so you can stop him before that hand full of sand reach his mouth. Do not expect older kids to look after the babies, at least for few minutes.
2. Why does the baby eat sand?
They find the whole world appetizing to them. Their fist, toes, and mommy’s hair, and everything has to be tested for their taste if you are a baby. Babies are spending the stage of life where humans learn much and fast. They tend to start exploring things with the question “how does this taste like?”
Sand has a new and unfamiliar texture that babies love to experiment with. If your baby is teething and at that point where he bites anything to relieve the pain, a beach trip will not be that relaxing to you. The rough texture of sand will appeal your baby to put it in the mouth to relieve the gum pain.
Beach sand can hide shells, plastic pieces, and other trash too. If your baby notices one of these things, he will not think twice to taste them too. So be careful of the surrounding before placing the baby on the beach even on a sheet or a mat. Run your fingers carefully through the sand near your baby to make sure there are no dangerous items that can go inside your baby’s mouth.

3. What happens if your baby swallows sand?
It is scary to think that your baby has swallowed something that many humans and animals have stepped on. But if it is only a little amount, then there will be no harm. As soon as you have noticed that they have put sand in their mouth, rinse and clean their mouth well to reduce the amount of sand that will end up in their digestive system.
There can be harmful bacteria growing in sand and if the baby eats sand with this kind of germs, it will impact his digestive system. There can be symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea appearing after few hours. In such a case, contact your pediatrician immediately. But most of the time, no such symptoms appear. This does not mean you can let your baby eat clean sand. If eaten in large amounts, sand can damage the intestine of the baby which can be a serious issue.
4. Can eating sand make the baby sick?
The answer to this question depends on the amount of sand that has gone to your baby’s digestive system and how clean was it. A little amount of sand cannot cause a health problem on its own, so there is nothing to worry about if your baby swallowed a bit of sand. But some babies will experience tummy problems even if they eat a little from clean sand with no other trash in it. This is not a surprise because sand is not something that is supposed to be in the stomach.
Most of the babies eat sand for once and give up as it does not taste good although it feels good to them. When the curiosity is satisfied, they will not attempt further to eat sand. But if your baby keeps eating sand, you can choose to avoid beach trips till they grow up.
5. Is beach sand unsafe for babies?
In brief, sand is not edible and it is unsafe to eat sand irrespective of where they are from. There is no guarantee that any sand is 100% clean and free from bacteria. Even if they were clean, sand can damage the digestive system while they are passing through the body.
Obviously, beach sand is dirtier than the sand you will find in your garden. Many humans and animals walk on the beach and leave trash and not to mention the debris of dead animals and fecal matter. There are concerns on possibilities for infections such as toxoplasma even the baby can get infected from these diseases when they play with sand anywhere.