I have had some pretty awful days this week. I am writing this to let everyone know the dangers of something so common I never gave it a second thought on it bieng dangerous.

Sunday my 11 year old daughter asked me if she could make her and her 3 year old brother some lunch. I jumped at the chance to let her do it as as I was sitting on the couch doing homework on my laptop and was too "busy". About an hour or so later my son seemed very angry and not feeling well. I thought he was just bieng his normal moody self until he started throwing up all over the place. I assumed he had the stomach flu and while I was cleaning up all the vomit his sister came home and asked what was wrong. I told her that her brother had the stomach flu but seemed to be feeling better as he was laughing and running around playing again. After another two hours my son started throwing up again and my daughter came out of his room holding an empty flinstones chewable vitamen bottle. we had both just realized that he had eaten the whole bottle. (there were at least 50 vitamens left in the bottle). I called poison control immediately and then 911. by the time the ambulance got to my home my son was not breathing and totally motionless. upon arriving to the hospital and blood bieng taken, they said he had iron poisening which causes liver/kidney failure. We were devestated and i was wishingn i would have kept a closer eye on him and called 911 sooner. They were able to give him some sort of medication that binded with the iron and made it leave his body. He is much better now and home from the hospital and expected to make a full recovery. I didn't realize until later that my daughter had taken the vitamens off the fridge when making lunch and gave them each one and put the bottle back on the counter without the lid. I should have watched closer, I should have known something else was going on. I had no idea that a child could O.D. on flinstones' chewables. I'm glad I learned from my mistake without permanent damage. just thought I should share that story.

He's so cute!

This is a good lesson for your daughter too; she's getting to be close to that babysitting age. I thought that a great part of the story (not that it's a great story, but still) was that she went and found the Vitamin bottle, meaning to me that she was concerned, and paying attention once she also knew something was wrong.

Actually, thinking back I guess I'm really lucky. I started babysitting my sisters when I was 9 or so (the fundamentals behind that are another conversation all together) and I guess I'm really lucky that nothing like this ever happened!

thank you all for your support. I never realized how common cases of kids eating stuff like that was. So many people have come out of the woodwork to share their similar stories. every emergency room nurse had a story involving their own children/grandchildren in very similiar situations. Yes what medication is left in the house is not only under lock and key but even out of my immediate reach. (i'm very short anyways so you could probably put it on the kitchen table and I would need a step ladder to reach). Not to make light of the situation but yes there are no more vitamens in the house because Xander ate them all. The funny thing is, they weren't even the kids' Flinstones. they were mine. they are the only multi-vitamen i have been able to stomach since my lap band surgery. They were MY pills. Talk about hard to explain that to people.

Foodstampchamp,

You have done a wonderful service in telling your story so that we can learn from your experience. He's a beautiful little boy. I hope you've been able to help your daughter let go some of her guilt for leaving the pills out where he could reach them. She's carrying as big a burden of guilt as you are, I'll bet.

A while back,. I was priviledged to do some research for a program that has kid safety as its mission. The research was to talk to relatives and grandparents of small children who may see them or watch them a couple of hours a week. The purpose of the campaign when developed will be to alert these people to the risks of having pills in your purse or other places where little ones can get them, having pills that look like candy and vice versa, having the little ones imitate an older relative taking insulin, etc.

Here's a link to the web site.

Jo Ann

Click here: Safe Kids USA: Preventing accidental injury.

I am so glad your son is okay. Thank you for sharing.

So glad everything turned out right. My daughter, when she was about 4 or 5 (she's 46 now) pulled out drawers in thelinen closet to make steps to my 3rd shelf where we kept all meds. She ate almost a whole container of children's aspirin. Rushed her to ER but she was okay. put a lock on the closet, but the stinker found the key and did it again!!!!! This was about 6 months later. I guess there were no bad results, except for our nerves.

Darling Little Boy and I'm So Glad He's Okay!!!!

My daughter when she was one and a half ate my African Violet that was on my coffee table. I was scared to death and called Poison Control ASAP and the guy who answered the phone said she could munch on the leaves till hell froze over! Thank Goodness!

Thanks for sharing your experience! It was something that could have happened to anyone.