Mother’s Warning About Accidents After Toddler “Overdosed”

Toddlers are bound to get into something that they shouldn’t at some point. However, after a 3-year-old managed to do the unthinkable — consume a bottle of pills — a Mom is now warning parents instead of letting fear of mommy-shaming keep her from sharing her “mistake.”

In a post about the terrifying ordeal, Stevie Niki shared what happened after her daughter managed to consume “20 to 30 capsules and six Strepsils”

Before I go further, I want you to know that I am well aware I will be judged for this. That the parenting police, childless experts, and the self- proclaimed perfect parents will persecute me. They’re going to say, “Where were you?” “Why weren’t you watching her?” “This would NEVER happen to me” and “My child would never do this.” BUT the fact is, it’s impossible to watch them 24 hours a day and accidents CAN and WILL happen. Sometimes accidents are small, they’re broken pot plants, a smashed vase or a bump on the head and sometimes they’re life changing, like a child falling into a pool, running out behind a car or like today, it was a child getting into the medicine cupboard and overdosing.

Niki is sharing her story as a reminder to parents about what can happen if you become complacent. “Its easy to do, we fall into our daily routines, let our guards down within the comfort zone of our own child-proof homes and never expect tragedy will ever hit us,” Niki said on her blog, My Tribe of Six. “It’s easy to think ‘that wont happen to us’ but IT CAN . . . All it takes is the turn of a head, a lapse in judgment, children just playing, or a parent momentarily preoccupied for an accident or mistake to happen.”

In this family’s case, the accident occurred when the little girl was playing in her room with her cousin. Niki was in her backyard with her younger child and niece. “I didn’t give it a second thought to leaving her inside a few steps away in her room, after all our home is totally safe and kid proof,” she wrote. “Well how wrong I was and let this serve as a reminder to NEVER underestimate the determination of a threenanger.”

When the Mom came back in, she noticed that the dinning chairs that are typically kept stacked , were moved to the other side of the kitchen and that an empty medicine bottle was on the floor. “It all started to click and that gut sinking feeling started to set in. See, my 3-year-old ALWAYS tries to take my 6-year-old’s tablet each night when we give it to her and each night we explain to her that you DO NOT EVER touch medicine unless a doctor gave it to mommy and daddy to give to you,” she wrote.”Today the determination to have what her sister has over came her.”

Although the cabinet where she stores the medicine is above the microwave and difficult even for Niki to reach, the toddler managed to push both stacks of chairs across the kitchen and used them to get the container of prescription medication.

Niki questioned the child to see if she in fact ate them or put all of the pills somewhere. “Coy, with signs of pride breaming through she reluctantly replies, ‘They’re all in my tummy Mommy, Sissy’s green and white ones and the big blue ones tasted like berries,'” she wrote. “After quizzing her a few times to make sure she did in fact eat them, a thorough and quick search to make sure she didn’t dispose of them anywhere else, I can say without a doubt, she did in fact manage to consume 20 to 30 capsules and six strepsils. That’s dedication, you wouldn’t be able to force most kids to swollen one capsule, let alone 30.”

After rushing to hospital, Niki learned just how lucky she and her family are. “The medication she overdosed on was slow-release Melatonin which is the artificial version of the naturally occurring hormone in our brain that helps us to relax and go to sleep,” she wrote. “There is no negative side effects to taking it other than she might have a decent sleep but the real kicker is, she didn’t even start to fall asleep . . . trust one of my kids to maintain [a] hyper state after downing melatonin.”