Raw Drip

Two weekends ago, as we were leaving the local pancake house, Adam slipped and fell into a door and gave himself a black eye.  Really, he fell into a door.   I swear!!  We didn’t push him, we didn’t distract him, we didn’t have to “tell him twice”, he just did what little inattentive kids with long legs and big feet do – he tripped over himself and fell.  But oh, the shiner on that poor kid…

Fast forward to this past weekend and the uniquely jarring wake-up call of a 2 year old girl asking her brother to, “Peese open dis for me.”  Upon hearing her seemingly innocent request, Dick’s parental alarm clock roused him from his drowsy state and he bolted out of bed just in time to catch Adam in the act of pouring a thick purple substance out of a bottle and onto the kitchen counter. 

To his horror, Adam & Tabitha were playing with cough syrup and children’s decongestant.  The child dosage cups that had been resting over the bottles’ childproof caps were now sitting in puddles of sticky grape syrup; syrup that was smeared all over the counter, dripping into the sink and pooling on the floor.

Immediately Dick yelled for help.  I stumbled into the kitchen and stood there for a moment as the whole terrible scene slowly sunk into my decaffeinated brain.

“Adam, what are you doing?” I asked, calmly.

“We are playing with the medicine, mommy.” 

“Did you drink any medicine?” Dick quizzed.

“Um, no, I don’t drink the medicine.”

“What about your sister?”

“She drink the medicine.” Adam replied, pointing at his wide-eyed, innocent-looking sister.

HOLY CRAP!  Immediately, I scrambled for my cell phone.  As I held the line for the next Poison Control Specialist, Dick threw clothing onto the kids and cleaned up the sticky grape mess covering the entire kitchen sink area.  Finally when Poison Control Specialist, Jackie, came on the line she started to quiz me on specific dosages for each medicine, bottle sizes, timing, etc.  I learned quickly that you shouldn’t clean up the crime scene since having an accurate assessment of the amount of medicine they’ve consumed is helpful.  But in light of our mistake, all she could do was give me the bad news.  We must play it safe and assume that they took some medicine.  She went on to tell me that, IF they drank most of the contents of those bottles they COULD experience seizures, hallucinations, vomiting, hyperactivity or extreme drowsiness.  Oh – and DEATH, too!

HOLY CRAP!  Off we sped to the ER – two screaming, terrified children and two screaming, terrified parents.

As I explained to the admitting nurse what happened, I got the verbal finger-wagging I expected and deserved.

“You must NEVER let your guard down with small children.  Always store medication out of their reach and in a locked box.  That’s just child safety 101.” she said with a note of condescension in her voice.

“Well, I do usually store them far out of their reach. I just happened to forget these two bottles on the counter before I went to bed last night and they used a step stool to climb up and get into them.  I thought child proof caps were supposed to be, well, child proof.  No?”

“Ha!” she laughed.  “I wish! Do you have any idea how many kids we see in here for accidental poisoning?  Every last one of ‘em can open those darn caps.  They’re so easy to open an infant can do it.”

I have to admit that I’m surprised to hear this, as I always assumed the child proof cap was my fallback in case the children did accidently get their hands on a bottle of medicine.  “At least they’ll never be able to get the cap off,” I told myself.   I mean, I can barely get the cap off of these things so how are they going to figure them out?  Have you tried to get children’s’ generic acetaminophen out of its blister packaging, lately?  It’s nearly impossible unless you’ve got a chainsaw and a pair of safety glasses.  And yet, here we stood at 8AM on a Saturday morning because my 3 ½ year old son managed to open not one, but TWO child proof caps!

After enduring several more rather humiliating lectures from other nurses, the doctor came in to examine the children.  Since their vitals were stable and they seemed fine, it was decided that they’d be monitored several times per hour for the next 4 to 6 hours to see if they showed any signs of overdose. 

As the doctor leaned in and examined Adam’s pupils, she pointed out the healing, but still brutally yellow & purple bruise around his left eye. 

“How’d you get that boo-boo on your eye, little guy?” she asked.

I knew exactly what she was getting at.  And, honestly, I couldn’t blame her.  I’d be suspicious, too, if I was seeing a kid who was covered in bruises (Adam, like most boys his age, is a walking bruise collection), sporting a wicked black eye, and currently being treated for a possible chemical overdose.  I’m sure it’s her responsibility to ask such heartbreaking questions of children and to make those kinds of logic leaps when all the necessary components of abuse or neglect are present. 

But it made my stomach twist in agony to think of it.  At best, Dick and I looked like lazy or irresponsible parents.  I couldn’t bear to think of the worst case scenario – that this medical professional interpreted the situation as child endangerment and looked upon us as the kind of monsters who would beat and/or neglect their children.

***

Thankfully, during our many hours spent waiting in the ER, the children showed no signs of overdose.  In all likelihood the kids never drank any cold medicine.  Disaster was narrowly diverted.

So, all you loyal Drips (all 10 of you!) please learn from my mistakes.  It’s impossible to stay fully attentive 100% of the time – we’re human beings so we’re going to let our guard down from time to time and errors in judgement are going to happen.  But there are some things you can do to avoid becoming, like me, another story swapped by ER nurses.  Share these tips (some from me and some from the Poison Control web site) with other parents: 

1. Child proof caps are really just adult proof.  Apparently kids get into child proof packaging all the time.  Don’t rely on them – even as a back-up deterrent. 
2. Replace the cap tightly after using a product.  If the cap isn’t on properly, not only will the medicine be improperly stored, but it could render the child proof cap totally ineffective. 
3. Talk about the dangers of medicine with your children in a serious/no-nonsense tone of voice.  Back in my day, medicine tasted pretty awful.  These days with all the flavoring agents we’re able to add, it makes it easier for kids to take but also blurs the line between medicine and candy with its sweet flavor.  Don’t let them confuse medicine for candy.  Be VERY clear on how serious/dangerous medicine can be.
4. Store medicines in their original containers.
5. Lock medicines and household products where children cannot see or reach them.  If possible, don’t even let the children see you put medicine away so they won’t know where it’s kept.
6. Read the label before taking or giving medicine — every time.
7. If your child gets into medicine, call Poison Control immediately and leave the remaining contents of the bottle or package intact so you can get a more accurate measurement of the quantity of medicine the child may have consumed.
8. Make peace with the fact that you’re going to be lectured if you find yourself in my shoes.  There’s no avoiding it and it’s best to take it as a reminder about the importance of never underestimating our children or allowing yourself to get too complacent about household safety.