Poisonous Plants for Kids and Pets: Kaner, Money Plant, Aloe

Kaner (oleander) is the one to fear most: every part of it, leaf, flower, seed and sap, can upset the heartbeat, and a child who has chewed any of it needs a hospital now, even if they look perfectly well. Datura seeds, castor (arandi) seeds and ratti seeds come close behind. Money plant and dieffenbachia mostly burn the mouth, and aloe mainly troubles cats and dogs. Here’s which common desi-home plants harm when chewed, what to do in the first ten minutes, and how to arrange pots so it never comes to that.

The plants that are an emergency if chewed

These grow in ordinary Pakistani and Indian homes, along roadsides, down the middle of motorway dividers and in the empty plot next door, and while nobody needs to rip out every hedge in the mohalla, every parent and every older sibling should know them by sight. Learn these seven.

• Kaner, oleander: pink, white or red flowers on a tall, narrow-leaved shrub. The yellow kind (peeli kaner) has green fruits with a hard seed inside. Its natural poisons act on the heart, causing vomiting, dizziness, and a slow or irregular pulse. Don’t burn clippings, don’t use the twigs as skewers or datun, and wash your hands after pruning.
• Datura (dhatura): big white or purple trumpet flowers and a spiky green fruit full of seeds. The seeds cause a dry mouth, hot flushed skin, very large pupils, a racing heart and confusion or strange behaviour. Older children and teens sometimes try it on a dare.
• Castor plant (arand): grows wild in empty plots, with large star-shaped leaves and spiny seed pods. The glossy, mottled seeds look like beans or ticks, and chewed seeds are dangerous. The castor oil you buy is processed and is a different matter; see our castor oil safety guide.
• Ratti (rosary pea): shiny red seeds with a black spot, used in bead jewellery and craft kits. Chewed or broken seeds are highly poisonous.
• Ratanjot (jatropha): a common hedge plant whose seeds taste nutty. Children who eat a few often get repeated vomiting and tummy pain.
• Lantana: the hedge with little clusters of multicoloured flowers. Its green, unripe berries can cause vomiting, weakness and breathing trouble.
• Adenium (desert rose): a popular pot plant with a swollen trunk; its sap carries heart-affecting poisons similar to kaner.

For all of these, don’t wait for symptoms. Some take a few hours to show.

Is money plant poisonous? The mouth-burners

Money plant (pothos, the trailing vine in half the bottles on Pakistani windowsills), dieffenbachia (dumb cane), peace lily, arvi leaves eaten raw, and ZZ plant all carry microscopic needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate. Bite a leaf and those needles jab into the lips, tongue and throat at once. It hurts immediately. That’s the good news, strange as it sounds, because it stops most children after one bite.

Expect drooling, crying, pawing at the mouth, and puffy, red lips. Rinse the mouth, wipe the lips, and offer sips of cold water to a child over 6 months (a baby under 6 months gets a breastfeed or formula instead). Most settle within a few hours. Go to hospital straight away if the tongue or throat swells, the voice turns hoarse, breathing becomes noisy, or the child can’t swallow their own spit.

Dieffenbachia got the name “dumb cane” because the swelling can make speaking hard. Its sap in the eye is very painful too; rinse with running water for 15 minutes and see a doctor.

Growing money plant in water? Keep the bottle out of reach of small hands, change the water every week so it doesn’t breed dengue mosquitoes, and never use a drink bottle a child might pick up and sip from.

Aloe, lilies and the plants that hit pets hardest

Aloe is less dramatic. For children the clear inner gel isn’t the problem; the yellow latex just under the skin is, and a chewed leaf can bring on stomach cramps and diarrhoea within a few hours, which is unpleasant but rarely dangerous if the child keeps drinking. Our aloe vera leaf guide shows how to drain that latex before any home use. For cats and dogs, a chewed aloe leaf brings vomiting, diarrhoea and tiredness, so keep the pot where pets can’t graze.

Garden products belong on the same list. Neem oil has seriously poisoned babies given it by mouth (our neem oil spray guide covers storage). Mustard cake (sarson khal) and other organic feeds smell like food to dogs and grow mould when wet. Chemical fertiliser granules irritate the mouth and stomach. Homemade chilli spray burns eyes and mouths. Keep every one of them in its labelled container, on a high shelf or locked away, and never in a cola or water bottle.

What to do if a child chews a plant: by age

The first steps are the same at every age, and they’re calm ones:

1. Lift the child away from the plant and look in the mouth. Wipe out any pieces you can see with a finger wrapped in a clean cloth; don’t go deep, which can push bits further back.
2. Wipe the lips and hands. Wash any sap off the skin with soap and water; rinse eyes with running water for 15 minutes.
3. Don’t make them vomit. No salt water, no ghee, no milk-and-oil mixtures.
4. Work out what was eaten and how much. Break off a piece of the plant with leaves, flowers and any berries, or photograph it clearly.
5. Emergency plant or unknown plant: hospital now. Mouth-burner with only a sore mouth: rinse, cold sips (over 6 months), and watch closely for the next few hours.

How the risk changes as children grow:

• Under 6 months: can’t reach plants, but can grab a leaf that falls into the cot or pram. Don’t hang trailing plants over where a baby lies or sleeps, and watch older siblings who “feed” the baby.
• 6 to 12 months: everything goes into the mouth: fallen leaves, soil, fertiliser granules. Floor-level pots are the danger.
• 1 to 3 years: the highest-risk age. They climb, tip pots over, and eat bright berries and seeds.
• 3 to 6 years: play “cooking” with leaves and seeds, collect pretty ones like ratti and castor seeds, and copy adults picking herbs.
• Over 6: can learn rules, but kaner twigs become swords and whistles, and datura turns up in dares. Teach, and keep supervising.

Where to put plants, and how to teach kids

A few changes in an afternoon make a home far safer. Move the mouth-burners and aloe to high shelves, wall brackets or hanging baskets, trailing ends well above a toddler’s reach, and put the edible herbs, the pudina, dhania and tulsi, at child height instead, because those are the ones you’re happy for small hands to touch.

• Pick up fallen leaves, berries and seed pods daily in the monsoon and flowering seasons.
• Fence or keep kaner and lantana out of the play area; if a new house has datura or castor growing in the plot next door, ask for it to be cleared.
• Label pots with a simple green “food” sticker or a red “don’t eat” one. Children like a system.
• Teach one rule: “We only eat plants that a grown-up picks and washes for us.”
• Craft kits and bead jewellery with shiny red-and-black seeds go in the bin.
• Safer choices for homes with small children and pets include spider plant, areca palm, Boston fern and calathea, though any plant can cause a tummy upset if eaten in quantity.

For another hidden household poison, see our guide to camphor and children, and for more on kitchen-to-garden safety, the Zero-Waste Kitchen section.

Poisonous house plants: questions parents ask