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I have always heard with mild to moderate toxicity in a plant, it depends on the size/weight of the human or pet, and how much is ingested, as to how sick it can make them.
The toxicity of many plants is highly exaggerated, but that doesn't mean you should go around chewing on crotons, caladiums diffenbachia, or any other decorative plant, or other plant for that matter. I'm not a physician or a toxicologist, so I don't know exactly what determines how much it affects the muscles or the rest of the body. As plantlady... said, it would depend on how concentrated the "sap" was, how much was swallowed or absorbed into the tissues of the mouth, how large the person or animal was, and probably other factors. Children can be taught to not chew on plants. A diligent parent should be able to do that while he or she also teaches them not to drink ammonia or bleach or to eat Comet or charcoal or dirt. To repeat myself, too many people get in a dither over "poisonous" plants.
I don't have any children but have many nieces and nephews (all grown now) and they learned at a young age not to eat plants. I do however have pets in my home and have had many pets over the years. I've always been vigilant with puppies and kittens, watching them closely, training them to stay away from all plants and trying to re-focus their attentions elsewhere if they want to play with, or chew on my plants. It is hard to watch them 24/7 and sometimes it's almost a losing battle with dogs and cats but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I worked with a lady years ago who had three St. Bernard's. I remember one time one of their dogs ate a poinsettia plant and was very sick. They rushed the dog to the Vet, and luckily the dog was okay. The Vet said if it had been a small breed dog that had eaten that much of the plant, there may have been a different outcome but I guess because of the size of the dog it just made it very sick. I have a friend who's little miniature rat terrier got into candy once and got sick, and one of my sisters has three very large dogs, and one of her dogs ate an entire bag of hershey's kisses once. The dog is an English Mastiff and weighs over 200 lbs and she said it didn't seem to faze him a bit, he ate the wrappers and all! One of their dogs ate part of a house plant once, and it caused him to throw up, but luckily he was okay. The dogs are probably bored while she and her husband are at work all day. We never can be sure what type of reaction a pet will have from ingesting something they shouldn't, so it's always best to keep stuff like plants and chocolate out of their reach, in the case of one of my sisters dogs that means waaay up high! The Mastiff is so tall he can stand and comfortably rest his entire head on the kitchen counter ... so he can reach stuff easily!
