Poinsettias aren’t poisonous, and they cannot kill your kids and pets
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a series of elements which are iconic for this holiday. They include, of course, presents, the Christmas tree, food and, last but not least, poinsettias. These plants and their red and green leaves have become a symbol for Christmas, and should be present in every home. However, some people started being skeptical about the plant for fear it might be toxic for their kids and pets, but is it really so?
Are poinsettias really poisonous?
All these doubts are based on a really unfounded event which took place almost a century ago. The event consisted of the death of a 2-year-old child in Hawaii, which ended up being related to poinsettias. However, the link between the two hasn’t been officially confirmed, but people relied more on superstitions than on facts.
Since then, doctors kept telling people that the report on the toxic substances in poinsettias was overappreciated. The plant contains, indeed, some irritating substances which might trigger some reactions.
There have been 22,793 patients who got exposed to the plant, but 96 percent of them didn’t require special medical attention. In fact, 92 percent of them didn’t even experience any kind of symptoms.
”In none of those cases were there deaths or serious injury. In fact, more than 95 percent of them required zero medical care.”
The festive plant contains some toxic substances, but they can rarely lead to adverse symptoms
Poinsettias belong to the Euphorbia genus, which contains mainly toxic plants. This led to the faulty conviction that the Christmas plants are poisonous as well. It would take over 500 poinsettia leaves for a child to get poisoned, so there is absolutely no danger.
However, this doesn’t mean you should leave your children and pets completely unsupervised in the presence of poinsettias. Any kind of non-edible houseplants can cause problems if it gets eaten, so look out for any unusual behavior or symptoms.
Image Source: Pixabay
