I was reading my friend Alison's blog today and was disturbed to find where she reported that their son, Thayne, has almost choked to death twice, and almost been poisoned, within the past few days! Apparently the first time, she was doing some housework and gave Thayne an (apparently) childproof bottle of ibuprofen to rattle and play with while she was busy. What happens? Within the first few minutes, he has the bottle open, and is choking on a pill! Then later, when he was playing on the hallway floor while she was in the bathroom, she came out to find him blue, and fished half off a wall anchor out of his mouth!

Jesus Christ, even though Alison is my friend, I feel like she needs a good telling off right now. I don't even have kids, though I have taken care of my four cousins through various stages of infancy and toddlerhood, and I know not to give kids pill bottles, and to always check the floor for anything small enough for them to choke on! I am also aware that this is a problem not limited to young Mormon parents, but it seems to be very common among them. What do you think?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2012 02:05PM by Susan I/S.

After that, what happens to them doesn't matter so much.

In this way, mos are pretty much the same as the rabid anti-choicers.

The internet, especially babycenter, has opened my eyes to all the people that really should have used birth control more consistently.

What is child-proof? The drug companies test containers by watching a group of five-year-olds attempt to open them. If it takes longer than five minutes it is deemed safe. Really.

Sorry, I've just always known them as child-proof bottles and containers. I don't exactly know the specific terminology-but still, what is terminology when it comes to an infant playing with a bottle of pills?

Most of the time it really isn't a big deal, and most of the world makes the same mistakes. Just remember, there are very few things that are child proof, fire proof, or bullet proof. Just use the world resistant any time you want to say proof, and not only will you be correct more often, but you will find yourself thinking in a safer way.

who just had her youngest of two break some bones in two places. few months ago it was her oldest of two who broke some bones and prior to that this same child (actually only 3-not 4 as I had thought) has had broken bones and other serious injury of similar manner.

I'm glad I waited a VERY long time and into my 30s to have kids. I was more knowledgeable about this stuff.

There was NOTHING safer than a bottle of medicine for him to play with? How about some pots and pans and a wooden spoon to bang on them?

That's right. Pots and pan drum sets for the kid, and keep the ibuprofen for the adult who has to put up with it.

There were a few things I did as a young mother that may not have won me any awards for my parenting. I imagine most parents have a few off moments. However! *Why* would you post those things on the internet?! To me, that is probably the most disturbing part of this scenario. LOL If you don't have enough sense to not out your stupid moments, you do not have enough sense to be a parent. Keep that shit to yourself! :-)

(In all seriousness - a pill bottle as a rattle? Wow.)

I was always shocked at what I saw in my SILs' houses when all our kids were little. The safety precautions I took for granted, baby gates - plug protectors - meds kept up high, were completely ignored by them. Once, one SIL was babysitting and gave my 14 month old a marshmallow to chew on. Thankfully, she knew the Heimlich maneuver for children because of course, he choked on it. When I came to pick him up, she asked "Do you every give DS marshmallows?" and I replied, "Of course not. They are a choking hazard for kids under 3." Then she chickened out of telling me what happened - but came over 4 hours later and confessed. That's the last time she babysat til my kids were bigger.

The other SIL was watching my kid one day while I ran home to my house, about a block away in those days. I came back 10 min later to find now 18 month old son wandering in the parking lot in front of her apartment building. She was around back chatting with some neighbors. I still wish I'd taken my kid home without telling her and let her freak out. She just laughed and said "Whoops" when I told her where I'd found him. That's the last time SHE babysat til my kids were older.

The third and final sister lost every other niece and nephew she had at Disneyland and/or Knott's Berry Farm or on other excursions before they turned 8. She found them eventually but she let all of them wander away. She never lost either of my kids though because DH warned me about her. She never got to babysit my kids until they were older either.

Finally, DH's parents forgot they had a grandchild, my nephew, asleep in their basement. He was about 18 months too. They went out to dinner with friends, rushing home during dessert when they suddenly remembered they were supposed to be babysitting and had left my nephew home alone asleep. He was fine and still asleep, fortunately. They never got to babysit my kids either.

My kids and I are very close because we spent a lot of time together, mostly because we had no relatives we trusted but my sister living close enough to babysit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2012 05:07PM by CA girl.

This doesn't have as much to do with young as it does with STUPID. You should have a talk with your friend about child safety though I doubt it will help. More than likely she will become defensive about her idiotic choices and continue to make them.

Well, Molly Mormon is required to have as many babies as possible. But, conveniently, it's perfectly okay to neglect them to death after they're born.

Contraception after the fact.

While growing up, our TBM neighbor (with a houseful of chosen spirit children whom she had given bodies/birth to) used to lock the kids out of the house while she and her husband made more spirit children. I am shocked that her kids lived into adulthood. One time, her child was sitting IN the stream in the backyard of our house. My mom took her child to her own house and told her mother off about not watching her kids. The neighbor actually said "I can always have more kids if something happens to one of them." Her only job was done, providing a body for these sweet spirits who are so SPECIAL! Personally I'd rather be dead than special!

This reminds me of the apartment building my aunt Penny used to live in. One of my cousin's friends, Yasmin, was regularly locked out of her apartment until midnight or later; Penny or one of my cousins often found her wandering around the parking lot late at night.

I posted about something similar the other day; at least a couple times a week you can find blatant disregard for basic safety on almost all of the really popular Mormon Mommy Blogs. What's even more strange--to me, anyway--is that EVERY time they post a shot of kids with no bike helmets or whatever, they get dozens of comments from concerned readers but never seem to clue in. If that happened to me, I'd be terrified someone would call Child Protective Services!