The First Time I Had To Call Poison Control…

…was today, and I hope it’s the last.  I have 4 kids, the oldest of whom is 10 years old.  So I’ve been doing this kid thing for more than a decade, pretty much a third of my life if I shave off a couple of years, which I’ll gladly do.  My older kids are girls, so why am I not surprised that the boy is the one who prompted the call to Poison Control.  The good news is, everything is fine.

This morning, Beeber (an affectionate nickname for my son Christopher because this is what his older sister called him when she was 2) was out of my sight for just a few minutes – I think I was cleaning up some sort of mess he made as usual.  In the back hall we have a pet cabinet (which will now be moved) where we keep leashes, dishes, rawhides, etc.  Back by the pet cabinet, I found an open, empty package from a dog’s heartworm pill.  It was opened neatly, and it didn’t look like it had been opened by a 21-month-old expecting to find candy.  I checked his breath and his teeth (the heartworm medicine looks like a chunk of dog food – I would think if my son had eaten it, then some would be stuck on his teeth), and there were no signs that he had eaten it.  Perhaps the last adult to give the dogs the medicine had put an empty package back in the cabinet.  Or, knowing my son, he might have just fed it to the dogs.  But I had to call Poison Control to be sure; the chemicals listed on the box sounded frightening.  Poison Control said they didn’t expect a problem, which I thought was a strange response but a better one than I had hoped.  I thought they would at least tell me warning signs of trouble or something, but I’m just glad they gave the all clear and that we didn’t have to make a trip to the ER or worse.

Ah, Poison Control, the number every mom should know:  1-800-222-1222.  They are very calming, friendly, and they can actually speak English unlike a lot of places that we call these days, so don’t hesitate to call them if you think your kid might have gotten into something they shouldn’t have.  Better safe than sorry!