Last night, after a long day, I was helping Jose dig out in the yard for the to-be-made basketball court, and Teo was crying on the monitor. We waited, thinking he'd stop on his own, but he didn't so after a few minutes, I went to check on him.
Once I got to his room, he held a nearly empty bottle of Johnsons & Johnsons body wash out to me and through his tears and hysterics said, "Ba Ba" with a quivering lip. I told Isa to go get Daddy and I threw my son, covered in a layer of body wash, into the tub where I washed him up using only water and the soap on his skin. Jose came up and I let him take over the bathing while I called Poison Control (1-800-222-1222, in case you didn't know. Save it in your phone. Post it on your fridge. Know it!).
The man there laughed when I explained the situation and said "Basically, it does the same thing to the insides as it does to the outsides, cleans 'em out," and said he would be fine if he drank it. Said the worst that would happen would be the runs or throwing up. He got our zip code and that was that.
Then came the fun of cleaning up the mess. Changing the sheets was the easy part. The puddle of body wash on the floor was a different story. Has anyone ever tried to clean up half a bottle of liquid soap from the floor? The first swipe takes off a lot of the excess, but leaves quite a bit still. Then, it takes twenty minutes to rinse the soap from the rag, which creates a huge bubble effect in the sink. By the time you get to the third or fourth wipe down, the rag is soaked through and still sudsy because you are tired of rinsing it out and every time thereafter you try to wipe the wash from the floor, it just becomes a bubbly mess. It took an honest hour probably to get it all done.
The good news is that no vomiting or diahrrea came of it and Teo was nice and clean by the time we put him back to bed with a room that smelled like baby wash.
Last night was the second time in my short life of being a parent that I have had to call Poison Control. (1-800-222-1222! Memorize it!) The first was about two years ago when Isa and a friend's daughter, Olivia, were playing is Isa's room and came down with the nearly empty bottle of Children's Tylenol. They had managed to somehow get it off the window above the dresser and open it despite the childproof cap. We imagine that they sat in the room, taking drinks and passing it back and forth like a bunch of two or three year old drunkards. That night was the night I learned that kids would need to drink an entire bottle or more of Children's Tylenol before reason for concern.
So, one tip for all parents would be this: Know the number for Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) and never hesitate to call it. Lots of things in a house get into the hands of little people, one way or the other. If you're not sure if they drank it or how much they got into, call. The people that work there are amazing and always helpful. And it's never stupid to call if you don't know. When being a parent, it's always better safe than sorry.
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