I am clearly unfit for my job

[ailbhe]

"Hang on, come back down the stairs, did you say paint?"
"No, Mum, it's not paint, it's INK."

---

Later, and less amusingly, I found that the medicines were not stored high enough (at the highest point in my bedroom I can reach without standing on a chair) and Linnea had carefully taken the "safe" dose of baby paracetamol/acetaminophen.

Two sachets, because that's the most that is safe.

Why yes, I cried. And we are investigating lockable medicine cabinets and trying to work out how to have the keys somewhere I can reach them and she can't. There are very few such places left.

I also explained - again, in a new way - that medicines are not "safe" but only a better option than being sick, and that "safe" doses when ill are a tiny bit poisonous when well.

I have no idea how to make this stick. And it's very important.

Thank heaven for pre-measured sachets.

Comments

[serene]

I know it doesn't help when you've been scared shitless, but I just want to remind you that it is *impossible* to shield your babies from all harm at all times, and that all we parents have had a time when we had to say "Oh, shit, I did what I thought was reasonably safe, and I have to make a whole new definition set now, because kids are SO SUPER SNEAKY about endangering themselves!"

[ailbhe]

I think I know too much about the delayed effects of paracetamol poisoning.

On the other hand, so does Linnea, now. Not *as* much. But still.

(I did have a conversation with someone earlier who said "But the rainbutts have lids, how could they be dangerous?" - I said "I don't know, but I don't want to find out the hard way, so I'll make sure to warn parents that they are there").

[supermouse]

Even though this was scary, I am incredibly impressed at how she's read up on the dosages like that.

I think the idea that poisons can be medicines is a profound and good one to absorb - just about all medicines are pretty toxic. Perhaps learning about Horrible Poisons, like foxgloves-->digitalis, and then how *if you have a bad heart* digitalis can be a medicine, and if you don't, it is deadly-poisonous, and even if you do the dose has to be just right? And deadly nightshade-->atropine and so on. I don't think a Tour of Deadly British Plants is actually a *bad* thing for a kid to learn...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

All I know is that my mother put big red "X"s on the things I wasn't supposed to touch. She cut them out of construction paper, and I watched her glue them on the toolbox, the medicine cabinet, where we kept the cleaning supplies, and so forth.

They were ALSO locked up, of course, and, while I seem to remember avoiding the red X's, I can't be certain that I did, and I wouldn't be surprised if they acted as magnets for my little sister five years later.

[ailbhe]

A big red X would be so tempting for Linnea!

The trouble with lockable things is that if my hands are having a bad day there's no guarantee I can operate the lock. We couldn't have considered it four years ago, but they are a lot better now.

[taimatsu]

would a combination lock cause the same problem? You might be able to find a largeish one. You'd have to make sure she didn't see/memorise the combination, of course.

[ailbhe]

Good plan.

[webhill.livejournal.com]

We have a safe at work that holds our controlled substances - my boss got it at Home Depot for a reasonable sum, and it has a numeric keypad on it which is used to open it. It's easy. I could open it with a pencil held in my mouth.

[ailbhe]

Ooh, no twisty lock thing. That has distinct potential.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

the far back of the freezer?

[ailbhe]

The far back of the top shelf of the fridge, perhaps... I can reach that with a step, and I can almost always open the door without help these days.

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

Something like this might work: http://www.directlocks.co.uk/codelock-electronic-cabinet-lock-cabinet-lock-electronic-locks-p-2651.html

[biascut.livejournal.com]

My mum had one which had four little buttons on top and you had to press the two outside buttons and pull the front forward at the same time - so you had to be tall enough to reach it, but also had to have big enough hands to reach both buttons and open the door two. I think I learned to do it when I was about nine or ten. Would something like that work? At least that way you'd delay the problem for four years!

[wingedkami.livejournal.com]

My mum had one of those as well. I don't think I actually asked how to open it until I started getting period cramps and needed access to painkillers at all times. Mind you, I didn't particularly like taking medicine (supertaster so most of the liquid ones taste pretty bad to me and I had trouble swallowing tablets) so I can't imagine that I would have tried to open it before them anyway.

[gingerpiggy.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

We had baby led weaning today, and falling forward on the sofa due to increased stretching. Mercifully all still alive. This is almost irrelevant right now, but how did Linnea know the right dosage? Has she confirmed her reading status? Good luck in finding a solution.

[ailbhe]

It came up some other time - that we had to know how much medicine she'd had because of dosages and that the wrong dosage wouldn't make you sick immediately but maybe only when it was too late to fix.

I do wish I knew how to actually frighten her, sometimes. Paracetamol poisoning is terrifying.

Combination cashbox works for us

[(Anonymous)]

E.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Helix-20cm-Premium-Combination-Cash/dp/B00133H0RY

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

Did I ever tell you about the time I had to ring the Poison's number at the Children's Hospital after I found K (aged 2) with a handful of red sugar-coated tablets and a bright red tongue from sucking on them? I had absolutely no idea what they were or where they came from (I suspected a bottle of antibiotics or something had perhaps broken open during a move and the tablets had been loose in a packing box and gotten into something and missed when we unpacked and so on, it was the only thing I could come up with). I felt awful. Tablets should not look like sweets... and vice-versa.

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

IKEA do a lockable medicine cabinet... keys could be on your keyring?

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

She should be old enough to know not to do it. Holly is 4 years & 5 months & can reach our medicine cabinet, but knows not to.

Am glad I don't put them in anything complicated, or that would be an extra stress in the middle of the night when trying to dose a sick child with calpol.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Being old enough to know not to, though, isn't always a deterrent.

[ailbhe]

A year ago she knew it wasn't safe and didn't do it. Now she has an idea of what the safe dose is and has judged the risk for herself - the risk of being caught, the risk of falling when she climbs up to get them, the risk of the medicine making her sick. And she decided, obviously, it was worth it.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, Holly still likes to make potions in the bathroom & spread them all over the floor :/

[piqueen.livejournal.com]

Better than drinking them but I imagine that's not much consolation at the time!

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Child proof lock on a drawer in the kitchen?

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

I have seen somewhere (no idea where, probably an Innovations catalogue) a key box with a hole and a latch that you reach by sticking your finger in the hole and bending it.

The idea is that an adult finger is big enough to reach but a child finger isn't; and because it has to bend once it's inside she can't simply shove in a stick or a hanger or something.

I don't know whether they're still available - it was about a decade ago.

[velcro-kitten.livejournal.com]

Is there a boggle-eyed emoticon? Yikes.

We got a lockable steel cabinet from Ikea, thats red, I am quite tempted to put a big white cross on it.