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Original poster

4 year old swigging from a bottle of calpol

15 replies

dangerdanger · 18/01/2007 15:25

Caught my 4 year old swigging from a bottle of calpol at a friend's house. It was left with the cap off by the sink in the bathroom. Rush to hospital but everything turned out fine. I sort of expected an apology from my friend for being so stupid at leaving the damn thing open. Of course it can happen to anyone, we all do stupid things. But still wanted an apology, I was very scared. She kept repeating that her daughter also 4 knows not to tough medicine bottles. She also drunk some though, not as much as my ds.
What do you think?

OP posts:
Blandmum · 18/01/2007 15:29

I think she is potentially leaving her dd in a dangerous situation.

I would have thought that an appology would be the right thing to do, but not everyone is as careful as you'd like I suppose. Think twice about letting her play there again

DetentionGrrrl · 18/01/2007 15:30

i think accidents happen, although i'm surprised she didn't something. perhaps she was concerned about her daughter more than you.

Miaou · 18/01/2007 15:31

Eeeek. You may have to accept that you won't get one, dangerdanger. Your friend is obviously embarrassed by what happened (hence the stupid comment that her dd knows not to touch but had taken some anyway!). But in future I would take it upon yourself to check that things are safe before leaving them unattended.

I think it's hard to accept if you are the sort of person who would apologise profusely if ever you did such a thing, but some people just get very defensive and refuse to accept it is their fault.

saadia · 18/01/2007 15:32

I would think an apology is needed but some people think that it is the parent's job to watch the child. My ds managed to get some tablets out of a friend's purse once - I thought she should not have left it within his reach, another time he got a bottle of eye-drops out of someone's kitchen drawers and opened it. I never got an apology.

Original poster
dangerdanger · 18/01/2007 15:36

It is so odd ....., we took my ds to hospital because he claimed he had drank lots, we left her dd behind because she said she drank very little, she was covered with the stuff though. I don't understand why my friend believed her dd, I would have taken my ds to hospital even if he had said that he had had very little. It is very surreal. And no apology.

OP posts:
morningpaper · 18/01/2007 15:37

It's just an accident that could have happened to any of us

I feel that you want to blame your friend because you want to know that it wasn't YOUR fault

It's just an accident, and they are both ok. Don't work out who to blame, move on

Original poster
dangerdanger · 18/01/2007 15:40

I normally watch my ds, but we take it for granted that the 2 kids can play upstairs in her room by themselves - they are 4 after all.

OP posts:
Miaou · 18/01/2007 15:40

I'm astounded at those of you saying it's "just an accident". It's not - an accident (IMO) is when something happens that you couldn't have predicted or prevented. This was no accident - it was the result of a stupid and careless action by the mother. I would be furious.

morningpaper · 18/01/2007 15:42

But they weren't in her bedroom, they were in the bathroom

I found a friend's child going through our medicine cabinet a few weeks ago - mine just DON'T touch it (can't reach for a start!)

I'm SURE I've left calpol with lid off in bathroom 100 times - it's the last thing you are thinking about when you are trying to syringe the stuff into a screaming baby

Original poster
dangerdanger · 18/01/2007 15:43

I guess Morning paper is right, it is not always easy sometimes to know how to behave when horrible things happen.

OP posts:
morningpaper · 18/01/2007 15:43

and four year olds are really a bit young to be left alone

I discovered this last year when one of them wrenched an electric socket off my bedroom wall

Blandmum · 18/01/2007 15:44

I think that things as potentially dangerous as calpol should always have the child proof cap on, and should be in a (preferably locked) medicine cabinet that is out of the child's reach.

THis isn't 'just' an accident. It is a prevenable accident

Original poster
dangerdanger · 18/01/2007 15:48

Really? You don't leave them to play? We leave them alone...as long as there is nothing dangerous lying around..now and then we go and have a look. What I found shocking was the lack of an apology. Everybody makes mistakes, especially if tired, stressed, etc.

OP posts:
Miaou · 18/01/2007 15:49

But MP (re the calpol thing) - don't you go back and put the lid on and put it somewhere safe as soon as you have put the baby down? I honestly wouldn't rest for a second until I had done that.

I do think that sometimes it's difficult to predict what other children might do in your house and make sure it is safe accordingly. A mumsnetter recently had to rush her son to hospital as he had found and eaten some tablets belonging to her friend in a kitchen drawer. They weren't out of reach, so to speak, but they were out of sight. I wouldn't have predicted that a child would take them out and eat them.

Blandmum · 18/01/2007 15:52

I am paranoid about this sort of thing for two reasons.

  1. someone I knew in school died from an OD of paracetamol and it was so awful
  2. It used to be part of my job to tabulate information on infant overdoses (accidental) of anti depressants. A job that was gut wrenchingly awful, and at the time I didn't have kids, I couldn't do it now
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