My Friends at Poison Control

Over the years we have had to make more calls to poison control than I would have liked. Despite our best efforts to keep them safe, our children can just find danger. I have learned many things. First of all the people at poison control are very nice and helpful. They do not judge you or keep records of how many times you call (yes, I asked). Second, most things aren’t as dangerous as you think. Here is a list of some of our memorable calls to poison control.  

1. Josh ate an entire bottle of children’s Tylenol. Evidently the recommended dose is very conservative and eating an entire bottle is not dangerous.
2. Josh took a glass Christmas ball ornament off our tree, broke it, and then ate the pieces. Not a pleasant experience, but we all lived through it, which is are only real goal at our house – survival.
3. Ashley ate an entire bottle of hairspray – aerosol, she really had to work at it to suck it out of the bottle. This is not a healthy thing to eat, due to the propane it contains. Poison control recommended she drink orange juice, and we watch her carefully. Obviously, she survived. They called back in an hour to check on her (their protocol). At that time we had another emergency for them. It may be hard for you to believe, but our house was very child proofed. My kids are not ordinary children.
4. Ashley ate hand sanitizer. This is not good in large doses. Rubbing alcohol that is in it can cause blindness. I have been told this behavior should be highly discouraged.
5. Hailey took ADHD medicine (stimulant) at night (her 2^nd dose for the day). It was not life threatening, but also not conducive to a good night sleep.
6. There were also a few times when Jason and I were not communicating well, and we accidentally gave a child medicine twice in the same evening or we gave the wrong medicine to the wrong child. We are very sleep deprived, and work with a lot of medicines. It is not a great mix. It was after these calls we instituted a medicine box system. Every child has their own box. All meds for the week are in the box. If the meds aren’t there, check with Mom before you take anything. If someone is trying to give you meds that don’t look like your normal dose, it is okay to ask questions.

Everyone survived, and we learned. I’m sure my kids have an important purpose for being alive, and may be indestructible. To this day they are all pretty bad about eating things that are inedible (supposedly). My children were the ones who ate their projects in preschool. I would pick them and the remains of a project up from school, and the conversation would go something like this: Me: What is this? Child: My art project. Me: What happened to it? Child: I ate it. Me: Why? Child: It tastes good. Me: Wasn’t there glue/ paint/___ on it? Child: Yes, it was still good. Me: Well let’s not eat the nextone so I can see your pretty art. Child: Okay They always ate the next one. I’m certain to this day, they may still eat it. They are truly very smart children, just a little different. And also, they are meant to survive. Like us on Facebook Originally posted February 2012