15 Children-Safe House Plants For the Nursery

My vision is to have plants in every area of the house. Zane’s nursery is no exception. As a new mom, and plant lover, I am interested in non-toxic plants and I would like to share with you the results of my research.

Zane’s nursery has a north-facing window and so the plants that are usually in there are close to the window. It originally has a mounted orchid and Staghorn fern. For the purposes of this blog I decorated the nursery with almost all the child-safe plants I had. I will provide a list of the plants at the bottom of this post.

The only plant which I do not have the ID is the plant above, which is a type of fern.  It has a soft, leathery and fuzzy feel. Although I don’t know the ID (therefore not sure if safe or not), I included it in the post so you, my wonderful readers can help me ID. Either way, you can keep it hanging high above, out of the child’s reach.

I couldn’t find any information on the toxicity of Pachyphytum oviferum (above), so again keep away from reach.

Hope you enjoyed Zane’s momentary plant-filled nursery.

List of children-safe plants in this post

1. Baby rubber plant (peperomia, not Ficus elastica which is poisonous)
2. Begonia
3. Boston fern
4. Donkey tail
5. Fittonia
6. Prayer plants
7. Rabbit foot fern
8. Rhipsalis
9. Spider plant
10. Staghorn fern
11. Swedish ivy
12. Thanksgiving cactus
13. Airplants
14. Wandering Jew
15. Watermelon Peperomia

Sanseveria sp. (mother-in-law’s tongue) almost made this list because I read that although it is poisonous, its toxicity level is very low and will only cause significant unpleasantness if eaten in large quantities. However since the leaves are bitter, it makes it very unpalatable – hence your child will likely stop at one bite :).

This is by no means an exhaustive list of child-safe plants. Refer to this very helpful pdf document by the University of Wisconsin Health for a more comprehensive list of common plants and their toxicity. This document also lists Sanseveria sp as non-toxic.

*I always operate on the assumption that even safe plants can become unsafe if eaten in large quantities. (I doubt any of you will let your infants and toddlers munch on your Swedish ivy for lunch just because it’s ‘safe’ 🙂 ).  Please note that this list does not apply to pets. Some plants may be safe for humans but not safe for cats or dogs if ingested.