Tuesday, November 08, 2011

wfmw - just go ahead and call poison control

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my supervisor at work told me a very sad story about the little neighbor girl who drank bleach. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a bit paranoid about keeping the bleach completely inaccessible to my kids? Nasty cleaning supplies, vitamins, medication...all of that stuff is where they can't get at it. And after seeing a story on the news last night about button batteries, I've really got the heebie jeebies about those now. My kids should be getting too old to put stupid things in their mouths...I hope!

It's the weird little things that have given me trouble. I mean, who gets mad and deliberately swallows his older sister's tooth? Who eats a glue stick? Or tries to suck the ink out of an empty printer cartridge?

Or the things that you can't believe they got their hands on. I was Christmas shopping with my youngest in my arms a couple of years back, digging through my purse and standing in the checkout line. With that awful speed that only young children headed straight for trouble have, he reached right over my shoulder, grabbed a fistful of petals from a poinsettia display I hadn't even noticed, and stuffed them into his mouth.

That scared me. It was too early to call the doctor's office and I was in an absolute panic, imagining my little baby in the emergency room getting his stomach pumped. Called the emergency line for our HMO -- and they had me call poison control. It turns out that poinsettias aren't as deadly as we've all been warned they are.

And why would anyone take a swig from the bottle of food coloring?! (Not to mention, who got it down from wher I had it hidden?)

The nice man at poison control actually laughed at me this week and suggested I take pictures to blackmail my child with once he's older. And I was pretty sure that it was harmless, but wanted to be prepared with real answers when Daddy got home and I had to explain the dark green teeth.

If you even think your child might've gotten into something, give them a call. I'm convinced that they have information about everything (Including ink cartridges...did you know that those have antifreeze in them?) They'll tell you what symptoms to watch out for. Or if, God forbid, you need to head to the emergency room.

And, every single time I've called, they've told me it was going to be just fine.

1-800-222-1222


This post is linked to Works for me Wednesay at We are THAT Family.

Note -- if this seems like a lot of calls for one Mom to have made to poison control, please keep in mind that it was spread over four kids and almost fifteen years!

4 comments:

beaquilter said...

sorry, but this is hilarious!
we all got these stories- I did know the story about poinsettias, and that it's really the roots and you have to eat like 5 plants for it to be serious....
when my son was little and we lived in FL we had a problem with sugar ants, so I got this TARO syrup, you drip on a piece of cardboard, it's sweet so the ants eat it take it back and kill the home etc, well my son got into one of those and was licking the cardboard, had to call poison control too, they said it's like baking soda, no harm. I WILL tell you about my DOG a 135 lb bullmastiff (Peanut) two weeks ago he ate a WHOLE 2lb bag of raisins! and 5 raisins can kill a small dog! I was freaking out and kept and eye on him, he was fine, I let him out, then back in, then went to quilt and he as usual followed me upstairs, then at lunch time I went downstairs to get lunch and he had had EXPLOSIVE diarreah all over the floors, in the living room (hardwoods), part in our bedroom(carpet) and part bathroom (tile) LOVELY!! it was well, I won't describe it in detail.... I got him outside, didn't punish him though, just happy he was alive.... DUMB DOG! ha ha

Becki D said...

Oh goodness. I've always wanted to write about how awesome Poison Control is...but then there's the concern that I'll look like a horrible mother. I called them when my firstborn got into the A&D ointment. They were suuuper nice and helpful and calmed me down. Such a great, under-praised service they provide!

MondoMOM said...

I remember having to call them once about food poisoning. They do provide a very valuable service yet receive little recognition.

Mary said...

My DIL confessed to me that she has had the Poison Control on speed dial for a few years now. I heard more stories that day that no grandma wants to hear, but we laugh about it now. Nice to know we aren't the only ones...WE ARE THAT FAMILY, too.

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