Well, last night we surely got lucky! We had to call the Poison Control Hotline two times and were up very late. Their number is 1-800-222-1222.
Emma has had a cold off and on for almost two weeks, us too. She had been coughing badly ever since the weekend-3, yes 3 parties on Saturday?.. Before bed we gave her a Triaminic grape flavored nighttime cough and cold strip. this was about 930. I thinking that i should put the medicine in the cabinet but figured that I would be coming up soon and Emma was trustworthy-I had told her before that she should never take an medicine without us knowing about it. I also thought that she would never be able to open it since the strips packaging requires a fold at a certain spot before it can be torn open. 945 I went upstairs to get some clothes and then went down to do a bit of business and then take a shower. At about 10 I heard footsteps upstairs but thought nothing of it as I figured Melissa had come out from Emma’s room. I took a shower and went upstairs at about 1045. When I went upstairs the hall bathroom light was on as our bedroom and bathroom lights were on too. I thought to myself that I was sure I had turned the lights off and thought maybe Melissa was up and about. I looked around and Melissa wasn’t up so I turned our lights off and went into the hall bathroom to brush my teeth.
As I was brushing my teeth I observed the box of Triaminic strips on the floor Which was odd. I thought that the cats may have gotten it but when I picked it up it was empty! I looked in the garbage and observed a bunch of open packages and then noticed Melissa’s scissors, which are usually in her bathroom drawer, on the counter!
I then knew that Emma had eaten all the strips, I estimate that there were no more than 7 or 8 left. I immediately went in her bedroom where she and Melissa were sleeping. I woke up Melissa and told her and we woke up Emma and asked her about it. She would only nod that she had eaten the tasty medicine.
I immediately called the poison control hotline and went over the ingredients in the medicine as well as Emma’s age and weight. I was told that as long as she didn’t take 16 or more strips then she would be ok. She may vomit or get extremely sleepy but 7 or 8 strips should be fine.
We had Emma drink some milk-did I remember hearing that milk is good for things like this?- at which time Melissa went into her bathroom and discovered that the Triaminic daytime box, which was on her countertop behind something, was empty and there were some empty packages in her garbage! We went over the questioning again and Emma nodded in agreement that she had taken them also but was a bit freaked out at our panicky concern.
I called the hotline again and estimated that she had taken 5 or 6 of the daytime strips, the box didn’t have many left thank God! The daytime strips have a different mixture of ingredients and I called the hotline and got hold of the same guy who helped me previously. Again, he said that she should be OK but that we had better keep Emma up for observation the next couple hours.
We brought Emma downstairs and gave her milk and crackers and turned on Archie cartoons- she is addicted to them recently and our blu-ray player has YouTube access to find them all. I observed Emma to act normally but her pupils were much larger than normal. Unlike the druggies I had dealt with in the past, Emma’s pupils contracted when light was shone in them. As we were trying to stay awake ourselves I went online and scared myself some more by looking at all the information out there about overdosing on this type of stuff.. I was fearful of dizziness, confusion, and even seizures…
We let Emma sleep in our bed so we could monitor her and I stayed up very late on my iPad on our bedroom floor so that I could hear Emma coughing and check up on her often. How scary this was!
Lesson learned: even though Emma was trustworthy about these things previously and even though the medicine packaging may seem impossible for kids to open, make it inaccessible! And always put it away! Bad Daddy!
Oh, as a side note, the Triaminic strips come in a package of 14. Very nice that hey packaged them in an amount less than the 16 that would be toxic. Lucky for us that the total of both boxes was under that!
As I was brushing my teeth I observed the box of Triaminic strips on the floor Which was odd. I thought that the cats may have gotten it but when I picked it up it was empty! I looked in the garbage and observed a bunch of open packages and then noticed Melissa’s scissors, which are usually in her bathroom drawer, on the counter!
I then knew that Emma had eaten all the strips, I estimate that there were no more than 7 or 8 left. I immediately went in her bedroom where she and Melissa were sleeping. I woke up Melissa and told her and we woke up Emma and asked her about it. She would only nod that she had eaten the tasty medicine.
I immediately called the poison control hotline and went over the ingredients in the medicine as well as Emma’s age and weight. I was told that as long as she didn’t take 16 or more strips then she would be ok. She may vomit or get extremely sleepy but 7 or 8 strips should be fine.
We had Emma drink some milk-did I remember hearing that milk is good for things like this?- at which time Melissa went into her bathroom and discovered that the Triaminic daytime box, which was on her countertop behind something, was empty and there were some empty packages in her garbage! We went over the questioning again and Emma nodded in agreement that she had taken them also but was a bit freaked out at our panicky concern.
I called the hotline again and estimated that she had taken 5 or 6 of the daytime strips, the box didn’t have many left thank God! The daytime strips have a different mixture of ingredients and I called the hotline and got hold of the same guy who helped me previously. Again, he said that she should be OK but that we had better keep Emma up for observation the next couple hours.
We brought Emma downstairs and gave her milk and crackers and turned on Archie cartoons- she is addicted to them recently and our blu-ray player has YouTube access to find them all. I observed Emma to act normally but her pupils were much larger than normal. Unlike the druggies I had dealt with in the past, Emma’s pupils contracted when light was shone in them. As we were trying to stay awake ourselves I went online and scared myself some more by looking at all the information out there about overdosing on this type of stuff.. I was fearful of dizziness, confusion, and even seizures…
We let Emma sleep in our bed so we could monitor her and I stayed up very late on my iPad on our bedroom floor so that I could hear Emma coughing and check up on her often. How scary this was!
Lesson learned: even though Emma was trustworthy about these things previously and even though the medicine packaging may seem impossible for kids to open, make it inaccessible! And always put it away! Bad Daddy!
Oh, as a side note, the Triaminic strips come in a package of 14. Very nice that hey packaged them in an amount less than the 16 that would be toxic. Lucky for us that the total of both boxes was under that!