‘My toddler gulped back the jar of vitamin pills in one go’

Sabrina (43) is married to Jean (46) and mother of Ivana (15), Sil (9) and Kai (4).

I reminded Jean every day: ‘Make sure that the chewable vitamins are out of Kai’s reach, because before you know it he will confuse those bright pink tablets with candy and throw the whole jar backwards.’ And yet last year I was the one who left the pills lying on the kitchen table.

Phone call

Kai and I just came from the supermarket. While we were unpacking the shopping bag together, a colleague called me. One who only contacts me when it’s really serious and so I ran – because the telephone connection in the living room often goes down – towards the bedroom. Kai could have been alone for a while.

Quiet

When I hadn’t heard anything from the living room for a few minutes, I went to have a look. And suddenly I saw Kai unsuspectingly gulping down a load of vitamin pills. How he got the jar open remains a mystery to me to this day.

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hyperventilate

I hung up the phone, snatched the jar from Kai’s hands and started to hyperventilate in panic. What should I do? Make Kai throw up? Have you drink milk? Have his stomach pumped? He didn’t seem to be bothered by anything yet, but I didn’t know how quickly I had to call the GP.

Fortunately, the nice woman on the phone reassured me: an overdose can only hurt if children take in much more than the recommended daily amount for weeks in a row. At most Kai could suffer from nausea and abdominal pain.

Stomach ache

That was right, because not much later he developed severe abdominal pain and diarrhea. And when he lay in bed at night, he said carefully, “Mommy, I will never eat from the vitamin jar again.” He had clearly learned his lesson ;).

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