Actually Gandalf first had a hunch of what the ring might be, at the Bilbos birthday party. He went away to check on it. He told Frodo to keep it safe and keep it secret. Years passed before his return and warning.
Gandalf simply assumed Frodo to have used it in the years between in the same manner Bilbo had... up to and including avoiding random encounters with Lobelia.
After all why would Frodo not have?
Would it have kept Frodo young if it had just laid on the bottom of a chest in the livingroom?
Janne Harju
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