Poison Control

You should have this number in your phone.  I didnt, but now I do.

The last time I picked Britton up from school, I left his backpack next to him.  In his backpack was a small bottle of hand sanitizer.  While I was driving, Britton got into his backpack and removed the hand sanitizer bottle.  I had no idea until I went to get him out of the car that he had gotten into it.

His pants and shirt were covered in sanitizer and I noticed the area around his mouth was wet and shiny.  At the moment I saw that, the alcohol smell registered with me as well.  Final confirmation was the fact that he was holding the almost empty bottle of hand sanitizer.  I quickly took the bottle and read the label.  Sure enough, it said, "Warning:  Do not inhale or ingest".  I asked Britton if he ate it and he said yes..

We had been on our way to drop off some library books, but instead I headed to the emergency room. I remembered seeing a billboard for Poison Control just earlier that week, but I stupidly had not taken note of the number.  As I was driving, I called Lewis, but there was no answer.  He texted me back to tell me that he'd call me in a few minutes.  I texted back that we were heading to the ER.  I immediately got a phone call from him where I explained what had happened.  He advised me to call 911 so I did, and they connected me to Poison Control while I sat in the ER parking lot.  Poison Control asked me his age, his weight, and how much I thought he took in.  They advised me to give him 2 oz of a sweet drink and watch him for an hour.  They said he may vomit, but that it would be normal.  If he was to vomit several times, and act drunk, to take him to the ER.  So off I went to get him some juice and Lewis called back to get an update and to tell me he asked the ER doctors about it and they said he'd be fine.  Apparently, teenagers drink the stuff to get drunk.

In the end, Britton was fine.  But it was quite scary as it happened.

Lesson learned: 1) don't leave Britton's backpack in the backseat if something dangerous is in it, 2) if it's too quiet in the car, take some extra looks into the backseat, even if it means adjusting the mirror, 3) have the Poison Control number in your phone.