BP's and Children..help

[NewmanLovesSnakes]

We currently have 5 Ball Pythons and 2 crested geckos which we were planning on getting into breeding BP's until this past Wednesday. I have 3 children ages 7, 3, and 2. On Wednesday my 3 year old son had to be rushed to the ER due to a fever of 104.1 (that we couldn't brake), vomiting, diarrhea, rapid resting heart rate and extremely lethargic. Turns out he had gotten salmonella, not only in his stomach but also found out it had gotten into his bloodstream. This is his 2nd day of antibiotics and he is finally returning to normalish, saying he isn't sick anymore. Needless to say we are very relieved that it seems he is getting over this. Now i have kept various reptiles for over 20 years and never gotten sick because of them. Also myself, wife and all kids wash there hands after handling any of our reptiles. The doctors were saying either he got salmonella from something he ate (under cooked) or the reptiles. We all eat the same stuff so i think its a little odd that no one else had gotten it. The doctors are saying we need to get rid of all reptiles until all of the kids are at least 5 years old. Of course, they are all currently up for re homing and will most likely be gone in a day or 2 because i am not willing to take a risk like that again. My question is, has anyone else had any experience like this? or been told no reptiles in the home with children? Lastly, is there any type of reptile that would be safest to keep?

I’ll be straight forward with you, I have a toddler too around that age and he is an absolute handful. There’s a big possibility he could of gone into the trash and touched something infected with salmonella. Toddlers move so much and get into anything they can. Unless you recently let your child hold one of your reptiles or you have them easily accessible to where they can handle them without you guys knowing, there’s no way to know where he got sick from. I personally would not want to rehome all my reptiles with out more certainty that they are the actual cause.


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