Take 10 Seconds and Do this One Important Thing

Hopefully you will never need the #, but take 10 seconds, anyway, grab your cell phone and program in this contact: 1-800-222-1222 for POISON CONTROL.

Yes, my baby swallowed nail polish remover today.  He's fine, but I had to call 411 and get transferred to poison control because I could not think of the # and couldn't remember where near the phone I had put it. 

Here's what happened:  The kids and I are home sick today with head colds, so I was feeling feverish, lethargic and out-of-it anyway.  I was on the floor in Lauren's room reading her a book, William was playing with Duplos at our feet.  I got to a long page, looked up and noticed he wasn't there anymore.  In that minute, he had crawled over to the bathroom.  I share a bathroom with Lauren, connected to her room, so I have all of my makeup, etc. under the sink.  He'd never had access to explore it before since I don't usually keep the door open so it hadn't been on my radar yet for baby-proofing.  I also hadn't thought about the beauty supplies as poisonous the way I do, say the Clorox or aspirins. 

Anyway, he was on the ground, the bottle was in his mouth, he was smiling, his breath smelled like (to my stuffed-up nose) nail polish remover.  There was about an ounce of it left in the bottom of the 6 ounce bottle.  There was a tiny bit of it on the floor.  The top was closed but he must have opened it at some point to spill the little bit on the floor.  I could not remember how full the bottle had been before, other than, I'm sure at least half empty.  I hadn't used it to take nail polish off in months!

I called 411 to get transferred to Poison Control and they told me that he probably hadn't swallowed very much of it because he's so young, it would be hard to get that coordination, he wouldn't be very thirsty, and it wouldn't taste good.  But I was supposed to watch him anyway, not let him lie down for the next hour, in case he vomited.  I also should give him water or milk.  If he seemed lethargic, I would have to bring him in to the ER. 

Ryan walked in the door right as I was finishing up the call.  We then spent the next hour taking turns holding William upright and intently checking to see if he seemed sleepy.   Well, today he only napped for 20 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon, and it was approaching bedtime, so of course he was a little sleepy!  But then he spilled water on himself, was very alert (and cold!) so we were reassured.  Fingers crossed, so far he seems fine.

Please do learn from my mistakes.  Take a few seconds, stop your blog browsing, and actually do this simple act of putting the Poison Control phone # in your cell phone.  I've also taped it to the back of my house phone.    Better safe than sorry!