Being a parent can be incredibly stressful. In the beginning, you're overwhelmed with, well, everything. Then a funny thing happens. There are still (and always) things to teach and things to learn, but as your confidence as a parent grows, you become less attuned to every little thing. It can be hard to figure out what's important and what's just noise. Then there are things that you don't think you need to explain, because you assume they're self-explanatory, and you might not realize you were wrong until it's too late.
One mom had a harrowing experience that, thankfully, she was prepared for. Milly is a 25-year-old mom who takes thyroid medication. She unknowingly dropped a pill, and it was discovered by her young son, Elijah. She took to Instagram to share the incident with her followers so that they can prevent a tragedy occurring in any of their own homes. It might seem obvious, but any piece of advice regarding children's safety is worth listening to.
This is Milly and her son Elijah.
Milly runs a mental health awareness and body positivity Instagram account where Elijah is featured prominently in her musings on parenting.
Recently, Milly and Elijah had an incident that could have been terrifying, had she not been prepared. She took to Instagram to warn other parents.
“This highlights how damn important it is to make sure you teach your children to NOT eat things off the floor and to show them to you immediately," Milly explained. "Eli has been taught he doesn’t put anything in his mouth from the floor even if he knows it’s a sweet. He ALWAYS has to double check and we reinforce it constantly."
She continued to explain what damage could have been done:
“This is a levothyroxine tablet for a thyroid disorder I have and strong enough to put Eli in intensive care. I am the most careful person with my tablets but even the most careful person in the world will have human error which is why it’s not enough to just keep your meds out of reach.”
Thankfully, Elijah followed Milly's instructions and brought her the pill right away.
The possibility of Eli having not listened is there, of course, because of his young age and innate curiosity. That's why Milly felt it was so important to pass this message along.
“If he’d have swallowed this I’d be in a&e right now or worse. TEACH CHILDREN NOT TO PUT STUFF IN THEIR MOUTHS FROM THE FLOOR.”
“We taught Eli from a very very young age and so far we’ve never had a problem, fingers crossed. Even more important in a household that has a lot of medication.”
That last part is super important for people with ongoing medical issues that require medication. It becomes so much a part of your routine that you don’t consider what could happen if one thing goes wrong.
There are additional steps you can take to ensure your child's safety around prescription medications. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center recommends that medications be kept in original packaging with childproofing in place, that it always be referred to around children as medicine, and that you get rid of unused medications in your home.
Some parents were shocked to learn the toxicity of the type of medication Milly had dropped.
Too many had a horror story of their own about a child getting into medication. Thankfully, all of those stories were scary but had ultimately happy endings.
One mom warned that childproof caps are not enough, as her 1-year-old managed to get into a bottle of medication.
One mama was happy to report that her constant reminders had stuck with her kids.
Mostly, commenters were happy to see that Elijah was OK and proud of Milly for signal-boosting this important information.
