1-800-222-1222

AKA Poison Control Center... Yup. First call we've had to make since Maeve was born. SO this morning I was sweeping in the kitchen/mud room area, and I had shut all the doors so Maeve was limited to the hallway and the living room, which is open to the kitchen, so basically as long as Maeve wasn't in the hallway I could see her. And if she did wander down the hallway, all the doors were shut. Anyways, I was sweeping away and poking my head in every time I'd go past the living room. Maeve was playing with some books... I could hear her jabbering away and pulling them off the shelves. It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds or so, but the next thing I know she is standing in front of me holding on of those glade plug in air fresheners. She was spitting loads of bubbles and I leaned down quick and grabbed the air freshener from her and smelled her mouth- apples and cinnamon. SHOOOOOOOOOOT! I started examining the thing figuring out how the heck she got it in her mouth. Luckily she had not figured out how to open the container, but she did suck on the spongy absorber thing that is in it. So I called Ryan and told him and he called poison control. They said if she just sucked on the sponge thing than she was fine- just rinse her mouth out with water and give her some milk to dilute anything that did get in her tummy. Of course I felt like a horrible mom, so Ryan was sure to tell me that the lady from PC told him that it happens all the time- parents don't think about air fresheners and since they're often so low to the ground they're a target for kids. The thing was, I HAD thought about the air fresheners, it was just that she had never shown any interest in them. Its like they were just part of the wall that she walked past a million times a day. But THIS morning she took an interest in them.
THANK GOODNESS she is okay and didn't really ingest any- more like sucked on the sponge thing. But its just another reminder of how ON MY TOES I need to be.
Another thing that made me feel better was at the studio today, in the mecca of moms, I was reassured by all of them that its happened to their kids- they've had to make that dreaded phone call to poison control. One particular story that made me feel a lot better was about a little girl who used super glue as lip gloss. Her mom told me that she had been playing with it for a good 10-20 minutes before she even caught her- so by the time she did realize it, the poor girls lips and teeth were all sticky and glued shut. PC told her to use mineral oil to get it off and that she'd be just fine. And she was! :) So I am really trying not to get down on myself too badly- I know I'm going to make tons of mistakes as a mom.... I think this about sums it up:
IT'S TOUGH TO BE A MOM!!!!!!