Learn From My Mistake… Use The Medicine Cabinet
Every mother makes mistakes… and I made a big one today. I am sharing this with all of you so that you can learn from it and save yourself the same stress that I endured this morning.
As I shared with you a few posts ago, my young three year old daughter has been sick lately, even spending some time in the emergency room with a high fever. Well, after her fever broke… she developed an enormous cold.
I stopped by the store and picked up a name brand cough and cold medicine. I did check with her doctor for the correct dose of the medicine and then began giving it to her a couple times a day. Sunday night, she was particularly stuffy and when I gave her a dose she looked at me and said, “Purple medicine yummy momma.”
I explained to her that we do not just take medicine because it tastes good… it is to help us. I thought that she understood… I was proved wrong today.
This morning my alarm clock went off and I had a hard time waking up… so I hit the snooze button, three times. I know… not a good plan. When I finally woke up I was in a rush, hurrying to get everyone up and ready.
As I was in waking up my two sons… my three year old daughter managed to do something scary for any mother. She pushed a chair to the bathroom counter and used it to retrieve the bottle of medicine that I had set up out of her reach.
Even at three years old… she managed to get the well secured childproof cap off… and began to drink. When I found her only a moment or two later… she had ingested half of the bottle. Much more than her little body could handle. I immediately called poison control and was told to take her to the ER again.
Once there, her heart rate was up to about 197 and she was really sweaty… they had to administer charcoal and put her on a heart monitor for about five hours. It was all very scary!!!!!!!! I am happy to tell you that now she is fine, tucked into her bed and sleeping well.
I learned an important lesson today… you can’t be lazy as a mother. I knew she would need another dose of medicine this morning so I had just set it up out of the way… instead of in the medicine cabinet. So take these lessons from my mistake today:
♦ Be careful using fruity or candy like medicines… kids have a hard time knowing the difference.
♦ Keep all medications in a locked medicine cabinet up high and out of children’s reach.
♦ Have poison controls number saved in your cell phone so you are always prepared quickly to get help.
♦ Have the bottle of medicine ready when you call poison control and when you go to the Emergency Room so that officials can see the active ingredients and the percentages.
♦ Try to figure out quickly how much your child ingested by trying to always be aware of how much is in a bottle at all times.
“I know that it is hard to watch your kids every second of every day… trust me I know… that is one reason that we need to be more careful so that we can trust that they are safe when they are out of our sight for just a few moments.”
I know that my daughter knew better than to drink the medicine today… but kids are not always known for following their common sense, that is why we have to protect them. I learned my lesson the hard way… I hope you can learn yours much easier, from mine!
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September 23rd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
So sorry to read about your stressy day! I’m so glad that all worked out well for your daughter. Thanks for finding the time in sharing your story and to remind us to be careful at all times. Take care!