Another Day, Another Story

Another Day, Another Story
Hayden ate Purell. Yep. She gulped it. I was multi-tasking as usual. I was on my cell, cheking e-mail and watching Hayden play with her toys. All of a sudden I heard gagging. I looked over at the little diva and sure enough she had green stuff coming out of her mouth. I have no idea how she got to the Purell. It was high and out of her reach, but she did. I hung up the phone, swept her up and ran her over to the sink. I frantically rinsed out her mouth. She thought this was hysterical. She was laughing so hard that she bit me. After a few minutes, I finally stopped and her put her down. She resumed crawling around and used the opportunity of being in the kitchen to start opening all the cabinets. I watched her and she seemed fine. It was now bedtime, so I brought her upstairs to get her bath ready.
I’m part of an anal, fantastic Mommy group. I think one of the reasons we all get along so well is because we’re all insane. I remember a while back there was a big discussion about the dangers of babies eating Purell. At that moment, I wish I had paid more attention to those e-mails. I called back my Mommy group friend and she simply asked “Did you read what the bottle says?”. Nope. That actually didn’t cross my mind. At that moment, my husband walked in the bathroom and I told him what happened. He looked at me and said “Did you read what the bottle says?” Nope. Apparently, I’m the only parent in the entire universe that didn’t think to read the bottle. So I read the bottle. Call a doctor if your child drinks this crap. (Okay, that’s not what it actually says but close enough). Hayden was totally fine, but I called the pediatrician anyway. The woman on call insisted that I hang up immediately and call Poison Control. Hm. Now this was going so far. She was acting totally normal. But the fear of Child Protective Services showing up at my door was enough for me to google the number and call.
The woman on the other end was very serious. And I, for some odd reason, found the entire situation incredibly awkward and somewhat humorous. I don’t know why. I think my Mommy intuition made me know that Hayden was fine and I thought this was over kill. Don’t get me wrong, I will do anything for my baby girl and will take as many precautions as possible- but really? Poison Control for a little Purell that I’m pretty sure I got out? I was instructed to keep her up for an hour. Give her a snack and some milk. Their main concern was that she would be drunk from the Purell because of the high alcohol content. It took every ounce of me not to make a joke and say that I wasn’t worried since she normally has a higher tolerance than her Mom… but again, the fear of CPS loomed over my head. I, unfortunately, had to be in the office right after this whole issue went down, so I left poor Paul to deal with cranky, angry Hayden. I wish I was there to watch him deal with her. On top of having to go to bed an hour later than usual, she had skipped her afternoon nap. Oops.
Those people at Poison Control are pretty on top of things. They called back exactly one hour later to question Paul about how she was acting. I also wish I was a fly on the wall to hear that conversation. I can imagine how it went… “Sir, how was your daughter behaving before you put her to bed?”… “Well, she was screaming like a maniac, picking her nose and sucking on some wipes… completely normal”.
Another day in Hayden’s world. I saw her eyeing the Purell again this morning. I tasted it. I was curious. Oh come on! You would have tasted it too. Right?...