Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Mouse Trap, a 3 1/2 Year Old and the ER

 

This past Friday as I sat in the ER I tried to recall my earliest memory of the strangest thing I ate as a kid. Maybe it was the secret dollop of the Johnson's baby cream I remember my mom slathering on after bedtime or the lint off the carpet I ate in preschool or the Elmer's paste and glue I liked to dip my potato chips in as a Kindergartner. 

I definitely was an oral child (I sucked my thumb until the age of 6 when my parents had one of these installed)

Despite nursing 22 months I never pinned Lil Lovebird as a very oral child and when she'd see other kids put non-food items in their mouth she'd give them a look like, "Why would you do that?!" 
 

Well all that went out the window this past Thursday when she decided to swallow one of the metal balls from her Mouse Trap game. I got the game last month during Hasbro's party at Toy Fair, and it definitely wasn't the same Mouse Trap I grew up with as a kid. It's newly remastered as Elefun and Friends Mouse Trap for a younger demographic, age 4+ and with Nia being 3 1/2 I incorrectly decided we could play it at last. 

Nia LOVED the game, but when I saw her attempt to put one of the two metal balls in her mouth I was surprised and reprimanded her telling her to never, ever do that again because it was dangerous and could hurt her. 

She lowered the ball, looked at me in alarm, and we resumed the game. 

The following night she was excited to play the game with her dad while I prepared dinner and as they were setting up the game with an appetizer of strawberries in front of her she confessed to him:

"Daddy, I swallowed just one of the balls." 

Mr. Lovebird and I looked at each other in complete panic but knew better than to actually panic. We checked her to see if it was having a hard time going down then went into frentic search mode trying to find the 2nd ball and kept asking, "Are you sure it was just one?" and she insisted it was. Thankfully after about 5 minutes we found it had rolled under the curtains. 
 
Post-silent panic there were a few stages we went through:
  • Internet research - no, we didn't call 911 as Nia was acting normal, but we were mostly concerned about the metal content of the ball and after looking up other cases apparently it hadn't been of issue and expelling the ball was expected to take 5 or 6 days

  • Appreciation - we were so glad she was honest with us and didn't want to disrupt that by getting on her too hard; we let her know she had done the right thing by telling us about it (then wondered what else she hadn't told us about O_o)

  • Considered the consequences - Nia quickly realized it was going to have to come out at some point and was concerned about either #1 having it cut out of her or #2 coming out her booty and hurting

  • Made an action plan for the next day - we loaded Nia up on water and fiber before bedtime and decided to alert Nia's teacher in case the metal ball made an early exit or she had an adverse reaction; her pediatrician was concerned about potential blockages and advised us to take her to the ER which we did after school which led to the x-ray at the top
The ER confirmed there were no blockages and no adverse effects, and after less than 2 hours (the fastest ER visit I've ever experienced), 6 cookies, 2 juice boxes and a partially completed Barbie coloring page we were free to go and told to monitor her for when it passed. 

It finally did the following night which Mr. Lovebird confirmed using this contraption as well as hearing the "clink, clink clink" down the pipes, as he reported to me - God bless him for sparing me the hands-on experience!

Honestly, the best part was when Nia was waiting patiently for it to exit and sweetly asked, "Daddy, when it comes out can you clean it off so we can play the game again?"

O___________________________________o

My child.

What's the strangest thing that you or your child have ever eaten?