I heart poison control

Truly. I heart the voice on the other end of the line who answers when, in a moment of panic, I need someone to tell me that truly, my little man will be just fine.

Just Thursday, I believe it was, I called poison control for the third time in my son's two years.

First-ever call: "my son just got triple paste on his fingers when I was trying to change him and they went right into his mouth and it said if ingested call poison control so i am what do i do (breathe)???!" luckily, i've never been laughed at. the woman said he's consumed such a minor amount, he'd be fine. and he was.

Second-ever call, I was so overwhelmed w/ my multi-tasking life, I forgot that I had a pot of water (with his nebulizer mask) on the stove, and the water boiled away, and the medical thingy melted, leaving plastic fumes in the house. we threw open every window in the house (when it was maybe 40 degrees outside) i was neurotically paranoid we'd all die from poison gas in our sleep. i called again.

Thursday's, third-ever call, was actually FROM a public park. How many Mom's have actually called poison-control from a PARK? I did. Truly, the city planner/landscape architect who planned the park down the street from our house must have NEVER thought for a moment that small children might ACTUALLY be at a PARK. amazing concept. the playground equipment at the park is surrounded by oleanders. true fact that oleanders are NOT only poisonous to dogs, but to all mammals, including small, innocent children. when consumed, oleander leaves/flowers can cause death. hence our close shadowing of B as he loves to run in between these bushes. But on Thursday, he was picking the adorable little pink flowers, as these lovely bushes bloomed, and was telling his Mama that they were umbrellas. Mama looked up to see who was walking our direction, then looked down to see a saliva-covered hand, with a partial leaf of an oleander.

panic ensued.

Mama: "B, did you eat the flowers?"
B: "YES. SILLIEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD."
Mama: "B, it's NOT silly. DID or did you NOT eat the flower?"
B: "YES. SILLIEST thing i've EVER heard!!!!"

Looked in mouth. no apparent flower petals or paraphenalia. "YES" persisted, but my gut told me that he'd NOT eaten it (silliest thing he'd EVER heard), but how quickly can symptoms come on? how much do they have to eat?

1-800-222-1222, I believe...I believe this time, the woman DID tell me to take a deep breath, he'd be fine, he'd have to consume large amounts of flowers or leaves to be poisoned. Should I expect him to have ANY symptomology? NO, I was told. Give him a drink and just let him do his thing.

Needless to say, I placed the call to the City to complain after we'd THOUGHT about it so many times in the past...close calls NOT needed!

Hooray for poison control!