Poison Control

Micah:  Want candy!
Me: No, you can't have any candy.  Go play in the toy room.
Micah:  Awwwwww

He wasn't happy with me but he did what I asked and went to go play (or so I assumed).  In the meantime, the older boys wanted to go to the shop where Joe was working.  I called Joe and stayed on the phone with him while the boys walked back to the shop.  When I was sure Joe had sight of Noah and Jonah, I hung up the phone and went in search of Micah.  I thought it strange that the door to the toy room was closed, and when I went to open it I could not.  Someone (Micah) had pushed the desk in front of the door blocking the entrance.  The boy's toy room is linked to their bedroom by an adjoining bathroom so I walked through their bedroom to enter the toy room another way.  As I got to the other door, I was greeted by Micah with a look of pure guilt all over his face.  I bent down to ask him about the door being blocked and I could smell grape candy very strong.

Me:  Have you been eating something?
Micah:  Yes
Me:  What did you eat?
Micah:  Candy
Me: Show me what you ate.

Micah leads me into the toy room and I see an empty box of Tylenol sitting in the corner.  It was the meltaways for children 6-12 and he had chewed through the paper backing to devour eight tablets.  I immediately picked up the phone and dialed poison control.  Having three boys, I sort of know the number by heart.

Poison Control:  This is Poison Control, how may I help you?
Me:  My two year old just ate half a box of Tylenol.
Poison Control:  'Mam what is your name, address, and telephone number?

Now I understand why they ask all of that stuff.  They need to know in case they have to send out an ambulance or in case we get disconnected...but I always feel like such a bad Mom as I am admitting who I am and what I have allowed my child to do.  I also wonder if they aren't secretly pulling up my file and saying, "Oh, it is her again!"

Anyway, turns out there is a rather large margin of error that is allowed when dosing out Tylenol and they told me that Micah was going to be just fine.  In the back of my mind I was sort of thinking that at least he (and we) would at least get a good night's sleep...but once again I was wrong.  Turns out that an overdose of Tylenol actually makes a two year old hyper.  He did not go to sleep until after midnight and was wide awake at six the next morning.

As for poison control, I am really glad they are there.  It saved me from a trip to the ER just to calm my nerves and assure me that my child was going to be fine.