My toddler picked up a frog in the backy

Call your local poison centre now and tell them "a toddler picked up a frog in the yard and put her hands in her mouth before washing" — that one call takes a few minutes and tells you whether tonight needs an emergency visit, while you wash her hands with soap and running water for a full minute.

Brief contact with a frog is usually low-risk, so I am not sending you to an ambulance on my say-so. But I cannot see the animal, and a frog's skin secretions matter more if they reach the mouth — toads carry the most concerning of these, and most garden frogs are milder. Some amphibians also carry gut germs such as Salmonella, which is why the handwashing protects the small child and the older person in your house too. I can't tell you which one she picked up, so the poison line is the right door for that question.

1. What you already tried, and the better version of it

Hands with soap right away — right instinct, do it more completely.

• Soap and running water, one full minute (count out loud). Soap and water, not just a quick rinse.
• Focus on fingertips, under the nails, palms, wrists, and any cuts or hangnails — secretions hide there.
• Then rinse her mouth with plain water and offer a drink or her usual food.
• Wash your own hands after you handle her, and wash her clothes and any toy or surface she held the frog near.
• Tonight's bath can be plain water, nothing special to buy. Wash her hands again after the bath and after any further outdoor play.

"Letting her put her hands in her mouth before washing" was the exposure, not a treatment — there is nothing to undo there. What it does tell us is that the next few hours matter more than if she had only touched it, so keep a light eye on her tonight and tomorrow.

Do not wash the frog in the kitchen sink or the bathtub. Release it away from the play area and wash your hands after — a sink you then have to re-disinfect is not worth it.

The 5-minute version, if the evening is running late: 1 minute hands, rinse mouth, wash her hands and the surfaces she touched, done. The bath can wait for the normal routine.

2. Constraints and avoid list

• Do not make her vomit, and do not give salt water, syrup of ipecac, charcoal, "detox" teas, herbal powders, vinegar, lemon juice, or anything from the medicine cabinet. None of these help, and several are harmful.
• No new medicine for this, and no change to anything she is already prescribed — keep every current medicine exactly as the prescriber said.
• Do not use hand sanitizer as a substitute for soap and water here, and keep it out of reach. Do not wipe her mouth or lips with alcohol or sanitizer.
• No "detox" foods, no fasting, no new supplements, nothing bought online. Nothing needs to be avoided in her diet — normal meals, normal fluids, normal bedtime.
• Keep the frog away from your other child and from the older adult in the house; they do not need to handle it at all.
• Wash hands after every outdoor session from now on, and before anyone touches food or the baby.

3. Red flags — when to stop the home routine and get help

Call your local emergency number now if she has any of these:

• Vomiting, or repeated gagging; drooling; redness, swelling, pain or blistering on her lips, tongue or mouth; pain swallowing; refusing to drink
• Unusual sleepiness, floppy or limp, not waking properly, confused, unsteady on her feet
• A fast, thumping or irregular heartbeat, chest tightness, muscle twitching or tremor
• A fit or seizure; difficulty breathing; blue lips; collapse
• Any of these after any amount of her hand-to-mouth contact, and especially if the animal looked like a toad

Same-day clinic or urgent care if: repeated vomiting or diarrhoea, a fever, persistent redness or itching on her hands, or the animal was a toad (dry, warty skin, squat body, glands behind the eyes) and she has any symptom at all. If you cannot rule out a toad, treat it as a toad.

The poison centre call is worth making regardless of symptoms, because she put her fingers in her mouth and I cannot identify the animal from here. Do not wait for symptoms before making it, and do not wait and see at home.

4. Decision tree (screenshot this)

1. Any red flag above? → Call your local emergency number now. Stay with her, keep her comfortable, tell the dispatcher "possible exposure to a frog or toad; my toddler put it in her mouth." Nothing by mouth except her usual sips of water.
2. No red flags? → Call the local poison centre now, before she goes to sleep. Say: age, what she touched, that it went near her mouth, that her hands are washed, that she has no symptoms, and your city and country.
3. Was it a toad, or are you unsure? → Treat as unknown/toad: skip step 2 and call your local emergency number now, and follow the dispatcher.
4. After the call → hands washed, mouth rinsed, normal food and drink, normal bedtime. Check on her every few hours tonight and in the morning.
5. Anything appears on that red-flag list at any hour → emergency number, even at 3 a.m. Do not sit with it until morning.

5. What "success" looks like in 24 hours

Not a promise of anything — just what a good next day looks like: she has been washed, rinsed, and back to normal eating and normal sleep, with no vomiting, no drooling, no mouth soreness, no drowsiness, no unsteady walking, no rash on her hands, and the poison centre having told you that home care is the right plan. If the poison line asks you to be seen or to call back, that is the plan — a booked check is a lighter ask than an ambulance, and it is worth doing.

6. Scripts you can read out loud

To the poison centre:
> "My daughter is [age]. This afternoon she picked up a frog in our backyard and carried it around. She put her fingers in her mouth before I washed her hands. I have washed her hands and nails with soap and water for a full minute and rinsed her mouth with water. She has [no symptoms / list the ones you see]. We are in [city, country]. The animal looked like [smooth frog / dry warty toad / I am not sure]. What should I watch for tonight, and does she need to be seen?"

To a partner, grandparent, or sibling's teacher:
> "She handled a frog in the yard and put her hands in her mouth before we washed her. I called the poison line and [they told us X / I am still waiting to hear]. If she vomits, drools, seems sleepy or floppy, is unsteady, has a fast or odd heartbeat, has a fit, or has trouble breathing, call the emergency number straight away — do not wait for me. Please wash her hands with soap after any outdoor play, and do not give her anything from the medicine cabinet."

To the doctor or clinic tomorrow (only if they ask for it):
> "[Day]: she picked up a frog and put her fingers in her mouth before washing. Hands washed with soap for a full minute. She had [no symptoms / list with times]. We contacted the poison centre on [day] and they advised [advice]. Today she is [how she is]."

7. What I need from you

• Which country and city are you in? I do not guess local numbers from the language you write in, and I would rather point you at the right door than a wrong one. With that, I can tell you which poison line and which emergency number apply.
• How old is she, in months?
• What did the animal look like — smooth and slim, or dry and warty with a squat body?
• Any symptom right now? Vomit, drool, sleepy, unsteady, fast heartbeat, mouth sores?

One note on limits: this is home guidance for tonight, not a diagnosis, and I cannot identify the animal or judge whether this particular exposure is dangerous — that is exactly the question the poison centre is set up to answer, and it is a two-minute call, not a whole evening. There is no frog/toad-specific guidance I can check for you, so treat the toxin detail above as general information; the poison line is the source-checked answer, and a clinician decides whether she needs to be seen.

I also put the decision tree, red-flag list and scripts on one printable page you can hand to whoever is on duty tonight: frog-exposure-caregiver-onepager-ac2371e3.pdf