David was running a fever still so I got the children's motrin and poured his medicine. He was standing next to me in the kitchen so I turned and told him to drink his medicine. He said "no medicine" and ran away from me down the hall. I chased after him, caught up, gave him the medicine, and came back down the hall. When I turned the corner to go to the kitchen, I see Alex. She has climbed up the back of the couch, onto the counter, scooted to the end, and is drinking the Motrin I had left sitting on the counter. I could not believe what I was seeing! I ran over and took the bottle away. She cried because she was very proud that she had been able to get to the "medsin" as she calls it. I knew the bottle had been half full since I just poured some for David. It was now almost empty. I frantically looked around for signs that she had spilled it on the floor, the counter, or her clothes. But there wasn't a drop anywhere else and I could smell the bumble gum flavor on her breath.
911!! That is all I could think. So I picked up the phone and called them. The operator answers I tell her what happened and she immediately dispatches MedStar to my house. Then she tells me not to put her down because she may start seizing or violently vomiting so she doesn't need to be where she could hit her head. That is when I lost it and started bawling.
15 minutes later a fire truck, ambulance, and policeman all arrive at my house. That made for 10 paramedics and 1 police officer piled into my living room checking Alex's vitals. David just stood there staring at them. While some of them were checking her, the other ones were examining the bottle and trying to determine how many ounces she ingested. We decided she drank about 1 1/2 oz. which is 13 times her actual dosage. All of the firemen left about this point so there were just 4 paramedics and the officer left. They called poison control and they were told that she would have to ingest 3 oz. or more for it to be toxic, she would probably just vomit and have diarrhea. The lady at Poison control told them to tell me to call PC first if this happens again instead of calling all the paramedics out. Thanks for making me feel even better about the situation woman! The paramedics left and told me to call my doctor and make sure she didn't need to be examined.
After everyone left Jon came in and then Peggy got there about 5 minutes later. I finally got my dr. and she said I needed to take her to the ER at Cook's immediately and get blood drawn to make sure she hadn't ingested enough to affect her organs. I explained what pc had said but she insisted I go anyway. Peggy and I loaded Alex into the car and took her downtown. They got us right in but I kept having to explain what had happened. I felt like everyone was thinking "why would you keep meds where your kids could reach them" and the last nurse who saw us and released us actually told me to try to keep those things up higher or something. I wanted to hit him!! Really? I already felt terrible that I didn't just screw the lid back on right after I poured David's medicine and now people are talking to me like I am an inept mother. Anyways, the ER dr. felt like blood work was not needed and that pc was exactly right. Alex could have ingested twice the amount she did before needing medical attention.
She never reacted to it at all. She hasn't thrown up or anything and only took a short nap yesterday so it didn't even make her drowsy.
So everything was ok, but I have never felt fear in the way I did yesterday before the paramedics got there.
Here are a couple of pics of her in the hospital gown.
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