Laura has been making leaps and bounds in the last while in doing things for herself. She started by taking initiative in feeding herself more often in the last few months, and has gradually been doing more and more. All summer she has been able to open the door and let herself outside. This also means she can let the dogs in and out. Luckily, she knows that she and they are not to go out front, and generally would just open the door to the (fully fenced) back yard to play. She can put on/ take off most of her own shoes now, and takes off her coat (zippers, snaps, or velcro) by herself, as well. She is now happy to use the washroom on her own, although we still have to help from time to time. She has also recently started getting her own vitamin in the morning. This alarmed me at first that she could even open the supposedly child proof bottle, but she has been well conditioned that she is only allowed one vitamin per day, so didn't indulge in more. (They are put up now.) This past week she has been studiously practicing using the entertainment unit. She can turn on the whole thing, turn on the DVD player, put in a movie, and get it playing if the TV is on the right input. Today, she even got a clean sippy cup and matching lid out of the dishwasher, pulled a stool up to the counter, filled the cup with water, and screwed the lid on for herself. And then, because it was so fun, she drank it all and did it again. So, yay, right?
Not quite.
I was laying in bed this evening feeling rather hit-by-a-truck while Josh was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. Laura was OCDing with the entertainment unit again. Then I heard her say, "My foot hurts, I'm going to get some medicine." We have all been fighting some kind of nasty cold this week, and Laura has had the worst of it. Her Tylenol has been living on the bathroom counter. She came upstairs to the bathroom, and lo and behold, poured herself some medicine. I was completely unaware that she was capable of this, but I heard her slurping the last of it out of the medicine dispenser cup. This was when I realized that, OMG she can actually open the bottle and do this for herself now! I jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom. There were sticky remains of medicine in the cup, and a little slopped on the counter. "Laura!! Did you just drink some medicine?"
"Yes."
"Josh!! Laura just drank medicine!"
*Josh runs upstairs*
"How much did you drink?"
"Two."
*... confusion about what exactly she means by 'two'*
We try to get it out of her whether she poured two cups to drink, or if she was just arbitrarily assigning random quantities. The medicine cup held up to 15mL of fluid, and the 100mL bottle that, last we could remember, was a little over half full now appeared to be only about a quarter full. So, from what I can gather, she had a maximum of about 25 - 30mL. Honestly, I don't think she had that much, though. Either way, however, I am pretty sure she definitely had more than the recommended 5mL dose for her age/ weight. Ugh. So we called Dr. Father-In-Law, who seemed to think it was dire that she possibly had 5-6 times her recommended dosage, and suggested calling Poison Control and possibly taking her the hospital to have her stomach pumped. Josh then called Poison Control, who were significantly calmer about it. They said that they would only consider taking her to the hospital if she had upwards of 50mL, and that we should just give her lots to drink and no more Tylenol in the next 24 hours. So, we forced about 400mL of liquids into her, made her eat the rest of her dinner to hopefully absorb some of it/ lessen the effects, and are hoping for the best. Ugh. Kids.
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