Poison Control

Have you heard of Poison Control?  Their name is listed on pretty much every household cleaner, medicine, beauty products, and any other item that might be mistaken as food.  It's the place you call when you think (or know) your child has eaten something they are not supposed to have consumed.  Then Poison Control can advise you on whether or not your child needs to be rushed to the hospital and get his or her stomach pumped (or worse), or whether or not your child will be perfectly fine.

I had always prided myself on not having to call Poison Control.  I (used to) keep a pretty close eye on my children.  We are usually in close proximity to each other and I can monitor them fairly carefully.  Then I became pregnant and proximity moved further and further away.  It's not easy to keep track of multiple, active, curious and very strong-willed small people while one is in the bathroom throwing up, or laying on the couch trying not to throw up.

Thus, I had my first opportunity to call Poison Control.  For future reference, their number is 1-800-222-1222 from anywhere in the US.  You might want to program that into your phone.  

Any guesses as to who ate what?  If I had to guess, I would have guessed someone mistakenly thought one of the cleaning supplies that I had left out during mid-bathroom clean would have been ingested.  But nope, that's not it.

Or the supplies under the cupboard (that should have babyproof locks on them by now but don't because I just keep forgetting.  I mean, the locks are sitting there in the cupboard, waiting to be installed.  Somehow I don't think that's a viable excuse.  Note to self:  get on that.).  Anyway, nope, all cleaning supplies are still present and accounted for.

Well, what was ingested?  You might ask.  And who done it?

It was the little four year old Princess in the bedroom with the chewable gummy vitamins.

Here's the story:

Every night Princess gets a chewable gummy vitamin.  Hers are the princess kind, of course.  She gets a bath, brushes her teeth, then gets her gummy.  She also likes to share with Mommy and Daddy and proudly tell  that she's not old enough yet.

The other night I went to give Princess her gummy and realized that the container was empty, save for about twenty gummies on the bottom.  There were originally 180 and I had just purchased it that past week.  If my pregnant brain math is correct, there were not 160 days, give or take a few, in the past week.

Me: "Where did all your gummies go?"
Princess: "I don't know."
Me: "I'm pretty sure you do know.  Did you eat them?"
Princess: "It was a ghost.  It snuck up the stairs and it was a very quiet ghost because you couldn't hear the baby gate squeak when it came up. And it ate all the gummies."
Me: "Really, a ghost?"
Princess: "Uh huh."
Me:  "I don't think we have any ghosts that come visit in this house.  You need to tell Mommy what really happened to your gummies.  Did you eat them?"
Princess: "Well...."
Me: "So you did eat them?  When did you eat them all?"
Princess:  "I don't know."

Sigh.

So I called Poison Control.  The lady who spoke to me was very nice.  She said that happens all the time.  Those gummies are way too much like candy and very tempting to all the children.  Luckily, there was no iron in this gummy kind, so we didn't have to rush her to the hospital to worry about iron poisoning.  There is a chance of them all conglomerating in her stomach and causing a big, gooey intestinal blockage, so we just had to watch her to make sure she was still eating and not complaining about her tummy hurting.  Also, she doesn't get any gummies for a few months now.   

It's been a week or so and she seems to be fine.  I can't believe she ate them all, though.  The childproof lock on them is a joke, by the way.  Now I need to invest in a safe for all yummy  medications, or that quiet ghost might sneak in and eat them.