Just recently my wife and I had a huge scare. We woke up to ants in the apartment. To get rid of them we spray a disinfectant over them and their trail, find the source where they are coming in and stop it up with caulking. This particular time they were coming in by a crack in the windowsill.
We were running late already and this just added to it. Trying to hurry to get Aaliyah to school, me to work, and my youngest to her Dr. appointment. In the rush I forgot to put the disinfectant away and left it by the window on the tv stand with the paper towels.
When my wife arrived home from picking Aaliyah up from school she had to feed the baby and put her down for a nap so she never even made it to the living room to see that I had left the spray out.
Something about my kids is they love water spray bottles. They have one with a fan from Disneyland and love spraying each other in the face. You can see where this is going.
Just before my wife was to pick me up from work my son sprayed himself in the eyes with the disinfectant. My wife tried to rinse his eyes and face and he calmed down so thought it wasn’t that bad. She hurried to pick me up and when I got in the car he was crying worse then I have ever seen.
Theresa dropped me and the girls off at home and rushed him to the ER. There they made him wait and didn’t rush him in so we felt it wasn’t too bad. They checked him over and they called poison control who directed my wife to take him to a children’s hospital that had a eye flush to just be sure.
Hours later and close to $1000, even with insurance, I found out these important things.
Call poison control ASAP.
Some of you will say “Well duh, you should know that”, however when the kids is crying your priority is to flush his eyes. Then your first instinct is to take them to the hospital. Not call someone and ask “should I” no you rush them to the ER because you never know if those few minutes can make the difference between him keeping his vision and loosing it.
Besides, I never knew why or how they can help any better then the ER but to my surprise even the ER Dr.’s called them. Reason being is if you know what product it is poison control can look it up and hopefully see what chemicals are in it. They can see if it’s one with a high level of pH.
pH levels make a difference
pH level plays a very important role in the severity of the damage done from cleaning chemical. The scale ranges from 0-14 with 7 being neutral. Tears have a pH level of around 7.5 under 7 and the pH level is acidic over 7 is considered alkaline. These different pH levels cause chemical burns and depending on the type of pH the effects will differ.
Alkali Burns– These are the high pH and are the most dangerous. Examples of these chemicals include ammonia, drain cleaner and oven cleaner, and bleach. If these chemicals get in the eyes it can cause irreversible damage including vision loss or blindness.
Acid Burns– These are the lower pH level chemicals. These burns are less severe then the alkali burns but are still dangerous. Examples. Include battery acid, nail polish remover, vinegar, and lemon juice. These chemicals can still cause vision loss.
Irritant Burns– These are a neutral pH chemical similar to soap, detergent, and pepper spray.
Irritant burns will suck. If you’ve ever gotten soap in your eyes, or been pepper sprayed or was in the military and went through gas chamber you know what I’m talking about. However it wears off rather quick.
Every kid is different
My wife and I never had to worry about anything with Aaliyah. She never got into anything she wasn’t supposed to. We never locked up cabinets because we were always able to see her. Maybe because when you have only one child usually one of you has an eye on her or puts her in a place that she can’t get into anything. Maybe when you are split between two kids your not able to watch them as intently as you did before and adding a third just makes it that much harder, especially when you have a baby that needs almost all your attention.
Perhaps after so many kids you get lackadaisical and you comfort level as a parent is so high you make a mistake by leaving something out like I did.
Could it be because every kids is different on how they do things? Probably. My son, who is polar opposite of my daughter, gets in to everything, he climbs everything, he even can unlock the front door and he’s only 2.
My youngest, Jasmine, is not able to walk by herself yet but can climb almost any piece of furniture unassisted. She also puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. The biggest reason that really matters is because out kids have small toys, and them little monsters drop food everywhere. Rice is one of my biggest enemies. Why you ask? Well, when fresh it’s sticky as all hell so the kids will track it all through the house like bees with pollen. Oh, but once it dries my youngest finds it and pops it in her mouth. It’s gotten so bad we had to throw away a cheap down blanket because all the feathers that the other 2 beat out of it gets everywhere and Jamine will eat the feathers.
Lucky for me, I have noticed the food smuggling face my daughter makes when she has found stuff. On that little note be sure to purchase a small hand vacuum it’ll save you a lot of time cleaning.
We are lucky
We are very fortunate that my son was ok and didn’t loose his eye sight. This could have been another tragic incident of a mistake of a chemical mishap involving children. He is now afraid of anything getting in his eyes, even just water, which makes me feel horrible that my mistake causes him fear.
My advice is even if you have baby gates put cabinet locks where you store cleaning supplies. Be sure to take the time to put everything away even if you are running late and figure you’ll do it when you get home or someone else will do it. It’s honestly terrifying, you never know when you kids will get into trouble, into something they can’t get out of, or get hurt in someway that can’t be fixed. We can’t live in fear but we can do all that we can to protect them from the pain in the world.
