My baby’s medicine overdose — she drank a bottle of bronchial syrup!

My baby’s medicine overdose — a brush with death, because I was “careless” for once, only once…

I tucked in our nine month-old daughter under the warm blanket. Medicine overdose was no where near my mind. I had just administered some medicine to our two year-old son who slept in the same bedroom. He was having a heavy chest. On my way out of the bedroom I had noticed that our daughter, who was in her bed right next to my son’s, had kicked her blanket away. I decided to restore her warmth by covering her up.

Afterwards I left their room and was in bed in no time, but sleep would strangely not come easy. Despite the late hour of one o’clock in the morning, I was feeling disturbed without any particular reason. I lay on my bed for almost half an hour, gazing at the ceiling and occasionally nudging my wife who was sound asleep.

Then a sudden urge to get out of bed overwhelmed me. I shot up and walked hastily, as if to answer a call, back into our kids’ bedroom. It was unusual, as I had no particular reason to go back there, but I did.

I got the shock of my life! Sitting on the floor was our daughter…and…she was holding the bottle of syrup which I had unwittingly forgotten at her bedside. Shaken to the toe, I took the bottle from her urgently, but alas — it was empty!

Oh, my God, I braced myself for my worst encounter with medicine overdose. I frantically put two fingers into her mouth to induce her to vomit the drug… (Later I have learnt that this is not always advisable; it can make matters worse. See also advice HERE).

Unconscious of my careless actions, I had become distracted while tucking in my girl and walked back to my bedroom without the medicine. I had just opened the brand new bottle and used only one teaspoonful — meaning my nine-month old daughter had drank the remaining lot and spilt some on the floor.

Half an hour later, twenty five kilometers into the city, and having driven like a mad man in those ungodly hours, my wife and I were waiting with anxiety as our child received first aid at a Nairobi hospital. The doctor admitted her right away. Observation and treatment followed.

I felt quite perplexed that this should happen on the one and only occasion I had failed to keep the medicine away from our kids. I always feared medicine overdose. Hence I was such a stickler to the rule: “keep medicine out of the reach of children”. Actually I had designated a specific ceiling-level cabinet in our bedroom as the only location where all drugs must be kept. Without exception. I was almost religious about this, which sometimes amused my wife. Now I had devalued my very rule, miserably.

The doctor declared our daughter out of danger the next day. It only taught me once again an important lesson. That: if you are dealing with medicines in the house, finish that business first, however attractive another task looks. Or be ready for medicine overdose, which can be fatal. I was as lucky as one can be; but most of all, God protected my daughter. He took away all my sleep and ‘ordered’ me out of my bed back into my children’s bedroom in the nick of time. That intrigues me to date, I simply cannot explain it!

There is good reason to ALWAYS obey the phrase: “keep medicine out of the reach of children”. Medicine bottles have a particular fatal attraction to children. Beware.

END: PG1/46

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