Big Scare

Soon after you turned 1, there was a time that we were both sick (you had an ear infection and pink eye, and I had a sinus infection and pink eye) and had to stay at home for a few days. On the 1st sick day, I was feeling miserable but Dad wasn’t able to miss work due to a deadline. So I tried my best to keep up with you (even though you were sick, you were still active and busy) even though I was far less than 100%.

 
At one point in the early afternoon, I was sitting on the couch surfing the Internet while you were playing with your toiletry bag (where I kept your diaper cream, medicines, comb, and all other little items to keep you groomed and healthy). I noticed you playing with a 2-3 ounce liquid bottle of Tylenol with Codeine (it was prescribed for you a few months earlier for the long plane ride to Hawaii in case you experienced ear trouble). I didn’t think twice about it because the cap was childproof and you enjoyed shaking the bottle for the noise effect.

After a few minutes, I looked up again and saw that you were sucking on the cap of the medicine bottle. Something about this struck me as odd, so I got up to look at the bottle. When I pulled it out of your mouth, I noticed that, OH MY GOSH, the cap was OFF and the bottle was completely EMPTY! I paused for a moment as the realization sunk in that you could have drank the entire contents of the bottle (it was previously near full). How could this happen – the cap was childproof!

Immediately I began to panic. I think I screamed “Oh my God!” It scared you to see my reaction, like you did something wrong, and you started crying. I was freaking out but also trying to console you. In my head I was thinking, “This is it. This is the moment I have dreaded – when Connor’s life is at risk. This is what it feels like to be one of those parents with a child whose life is in danger.”

Without a doubt, I knew I needed to make a phone call. My first instinct was to dial 911. I hit the numbers in the phone, 9-1-1, but then I paused and wondered if I should really do that (will they question my abilities as a mother?). Instead I dialed Jeff at work. Fortunately he answered right away. At this point, I was near hyperventilating. But I still had some wits about me, because I was searching the rug for stains of medicine that may have spilled. I also noticed that you had some spots on your clothes, but not enough to account for 2-3 ounces, and the rug was patterned which made it hard to spot spills.

Between loud breaths, I told Jeff that I thought you drank the entire bottle of Tylenol with Codeine. He was very calm and asked how much spilled versus was swallowed. I still couldn’t find any spill spots on the rug, so Jeff stated that we should call the doctor. The doctor referred us to Poison Control. We called Poison Control and a nice man started asking all the right questions (how old/big you were, how much was in the bottle, how much was spilled on the floor, etc.). By this time, I was very unsettled because the man told us that Codeine was very dangerous for little kids. I started balling, and you were upset to see me crying, so you would come to me and give me hugs and kisses (my sweet Conman!).

Somewhere around this time, I finally noticed two distinct areas on the rug where the medicine had spilled. It was 2 spots, each about the size of a baseball in diameter. When I told Jeff and the Poison Control man this, they both breathed a huge sigh of relief. The spots were big enough to indicate that you had not consumed much of the medicine and therefore you would be fine.

This was one of the scarier moments of being a Mom so far. The thought of something happening to you, especially when it could’ve been prevented (by me), made me feel incredibly irresponsible and guilty. I told all my friends with kids about my lesson learned: Childproof is not necessarily childproof!