Poison Control

As I was installing a chain lock on the back door to prevent Isaac from escaping, I heard a scream of shock and pain. In the laundry room, he had climbed up on the diaper pail and gotten at the oxyclean stain remover spray on top of the dryer. And Isaac had squirted it straight into his face, in his left eye.

So I grabbed him up and held the struggling little guy over the kitchen sink and sprayed water in his face, mostly the left eye, but also the right for good measure. After a few minutes he was soaked and shivering (ever try to flush a toddler's eyes for 15 minutes?) and fighting to get free. I had Claire bring a couple of bath towels. I stripped tiny tot and wrapped him in the towel and stuck him back under the water, this time with arms securely pinned to his sides.



When the fifteen minutes were finally up (with water shot in his mouth for good measure, in case he ingested any) I wrapped him up in a dry towel and called the nurse hotline, who immediately sent me on to poison control. 1-800-222-1222, in case any of you were wondering. By then Isaac was exhausted and crooning to me. But his eyes look good, no redness or swelling. (They were puffy and red when I started the water flushing treatment. At least one was. I was moving too fast to be as observant as I probably should have been.) So the lady at poison control praised my quick action and will be calling back a couple of times to check up on Isaac.

As I type this now, about 40 minutes after the first scream, he's asleep next to me, still wearing nothing but a towel. I only hope that the treatment wasn't so traumatic that he forgets that the culprit was the nasty stuff inside the spray bottle.