After reading Kwickimom's heartbreaking post

[Farrar]

I can think of a number of things that I *could* post in this thread, and while I think sometimes it's good to warn people about unexpected dangers, I also am going to take a deep breath and just tell myself - as I always do - that accidents happen and it's better to be in the moment than freak out about an improbable future.

[Ginevra]

Peppermint hard candy from the church's courtesy dish. Almost choked my 5-yo to death.

 

Hard candy = the Devil. I will never give anyone under 10 anything of the sort as long as I live, so help me God.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Just a few months ago, we were eating pizza. My 5yodd was sitting next to me. Suddenly, she was standing next to me, pointing to her throat with her eyes bugged open, not breathing.

 

I turned her to the side (still standing), and did a modified Heimlich maneuver with the heel of my hand below her ribs and my other hand on her back. A big glob of cheese came shooting out of her throat and then she was completely fine. She asked, "Do I have to eat that cheese?" :D

 

I still can't believe how calm and matter-of-fact I was. I'd never done the Heimlich on anyone before, but my long-ago training and mommy instinct just took over and I knew what to do. The other adults at the table had no idea anything out of the ordinary had happened, until I told them.

 

Bazaar. It's good to know I can be level headed in an emergency.

[missesd]

I've heard kids can suffocate underneath beanbag chairs, especially if they're rough housing around and someone sits on them.

 

Never would have thought about that... and my kids have asked for one too :glare:

 

I have learned in my years of parenting to go without a lot... I do not have a frame under my bed from when my little ones used to sleep with me. Heck who am I kidding, the 4 yr old still does!! LOL

 

I do not have a dresser at all. No part of that is because we gave up EVERYTHING when we moved to TX, but also because I have very little space, so we use our closets for almost everything, cubbies, boxes, or bags for the rest. Now I am not so much in a hurry to remedy that.

 

We have no coffee table, because I have more then one kid with a scar from hitting the corner of my grandmothers.

 

We rent, so avoid houses with raised tile hearths around the fireplaces, because those can leave a nasty gash, that WILL require stitches... don't ask how I know.

 

Now, being a big family a lot of times we have no choice but to rent a big house with 2 storys. My kids are older now, so stairs aren't as bad. But spiral staircases are the DEVIL. I am still a little more then freaked by "lofts". I envision them piling stuff, climbing as kids do, and accidentally launching themselves over... horrible I know, but whenever I see one, I shudder.

 

And to this day before I go to bed, I still check on all my littles, make sure they are breathing without heads turned funny that would constrict an airway (hubby has sleep apnea, and 2 of the 3 already snore). I am also known to wake up during the night and check breathing, because of hubby and also because I am haunted by the fact my grandmother lost all 5 of her children :(

[Nakia]

Wow, so many scary things.

 

Cora ate several moth balls when she was about 18 months old. She was playing in the dirt with the other kids under my aunt and uncle's porch, where they had thrown some moth balls to get rid of mice. She came up the steps crying, and when I picked her up, the scent just about knocked me down. We called poison control and they said to rush her to the ER for charcoal. If she hadn't come up the steps crying, I would not have known. Moth balls cause kidney failure.

 

In April of this year, Anna got kicked in the back of the head by a horse. I honestly thought she was dead. Thank God she only had a concussion. If had been her face or any other part of her head, she could have been dead.

[LG Gone Wild]

What a TERRIBLE thread!!!

[sbgrace]

What a TERRIBLE thread!!!

 

I don't think so actually. I think it shows that most of the time the most horrible doesn't happen. I am a paranoid mom. That said, I know we can do everything right and still lose a child. Accidents happen. Life is unpredictable. But for the vast majority we don't experience the ultimate loss.

 

The scariest was when my son had an anaphylactic (biphasic) reaction to tree nut trace. He got hives and we gave benadryl and I thought that was that outside of asking the person who made the bread for us what was in it the next day. He told me there was a weirdness like a rock in his throat when I brushed his teeth but I didn't make the connection because anaphylaxis wasn't on my radar. He didn't seem panicked, he often had hives to food, and I just didn't think of throat swelling. A couple of hours later I started feeling anxious and asked hubby to check on him in bed.

 

My son was sitting up in bed but didn't respond to my husband talking to him or shaking him. He turned on the light and Caleb was entirely swollen and his skin was blanched white (from a blood pressure drop). He picked him up yelling for me and my son vomited and had diarrhea. He kept vomitting. He was so swollen and I felt like everything was slow motion. I then drove him to the ER rather than call 911! I did everything wrong and I'm fortunate my son lived.

 

We've had some falls, a baby accidentally left in the tub due to sleep deprivation, a choking incident, and a medicine mistake. But nothing was as life threatening as that night.

Edited December 15, 2010 by sbgrace

[amydavis]

The scariest things have happened with my oldest son, now 17. The first that comes to mind happened when he was around 2 or so. He was playing in his room upstairs. At some point he became quiet, far too quiet, and I went up to check on him. Somehow he had maneuvered things so that he could climb up on a ledge, and then make his way to a dresser. From there, he had gone to the window. That is exactly how I found him, standing in the open window, pressed against the screen with all his weight. Why the screen did not pop out from his weight, I'll never know. Thank God.

 

My youngest, dd6, was enjoying a ride in the back of a wagon/tractor thing. It was a family reunion on a farm, and some young adults were driving the children around. Well, they hit a pothole and it bounced; my dd was thrown from the vehicle. There was a panic, and my mother and I were running. We couldn't tell who had been thrown, and then I heard my oldest dd, and I knew. I could barely approach the scene, I was so worried about what I'd find. She was scratched and scraped and bloody, but miraculously she didn't have anything broken or in need of stitches. By the next day her face was puffy and badly bruised. It served as a reminder of how quickly our lives could have changed. Scary.

[lionfamily1999]

I was in high school when I had dd. I came home from school one day and plopped my bookbag down on the couch, fully loaded with heavy books and went to go find dd, I assumed she was in her crib. I came back out and called for my mom who yelled back, "She's sleeping on the couch." There was dd between two couch pillows fast asleep... right underneath my bookbag.

 

Older ds wanted to play peek-a-boo getting out the tub one night. He went to squat down to hide and split his chin open on the side of the tub.

 

Youngest wanted to jump off the front porch like the big kids. At the last second his little friend accidentally tripped him. He managed to land on the top of his head (picture, straight upside down). I really thought he had broken his neck.

 

There's plenty more...

[missesd]

Oh, I forgot - my son could, before even 18 months, open our dishwasher and oven. The oven door has a lock, but he learned to open that too. :glare:

 

Now we don't put knives in the dishwasher until it's getting turned on (after toddler bedtime), and I don't leave the kitchen while things are cooking unless he's with me.

 

My nerves will be shot before this one grow up, I'm sure.

 

On that note... did ya guys know Cascade can do a pretty bad chemical burn :( Yeah my 8 yr old when he was 16 months old taught me that...

[amy g.]

Dh was about to go to the hardware store, and I was standing in the door reminding him of what I wanted, and what not to buy.

 

Miss Good was 3 and she kept trying to interrupt me. I kept reminding her that she was being rude. Finally, I asked her what was so important. She said that Mr. Clever, then 1.5, wanted out, so she opened the gate for him.

 

The gate led to our driveway, and then a very busy road. Dh, and I ran, screaming, up and down the street. There was no trace of him.

 

He had gone in the open garage door, and was pointing to his fishing pole.

 

I shook for hours. I kept saying, "Do you realize we could be at the funeral home right now?"

[missesd]

I don't think so actually.

 

:iagree: I have actually learned a few things of what "not to do". Scenarios that are VERY possible, but would have never considered. That's saying a lot for a mother of 9 total and almost 17 years under her belt!! And as I sit here reading them, I am passing on this info to my 15yr old DD who will be a mother herself someday. Knowledge IS power. It may be hard to hear, or read... but some if these things I think we *need* to hear.

[WarriorMama]

On that note... did ya guys know Cascade can do a pretty bad chemical burn :( Yeah my 8 yr old when he was 16 months old taught me that...

 

Parenting is quite the education, isn't it? :grouphug:

[missesd]

Dh was about to go to the hardware store, and I was standing in the door reminding him of what I wanted, and what not to buy.

 

Miss Good was 3 and she kept trying to interrupt me. I kept reminding her that she was being rude. Finally, I asked her what was so important. She said that Mr. Clever, then 1.5, wanted out, so she opened the gate for him.

 

The gate led to our driveway, and then a very busy road. Dh, and I ran, screaming, up and down the street. There was no trace of him.

 

He had gone in the open garage door, and was pointing to his fishing pole.

 

I shook for hours. I kept saying, "Do you realize we could be at the funeral home right now?"

 

BTDT too... When we moved to Reno, the kids and I had all of the windows and doors opened airing it out. The previous tenants had had dogs and the house smelled AWFUL!! Elena, who was not quite 2 then was sitting playing in the doorway to the garage. The kids and I were arranging the living room and vacuuming. Finally we sit down, tired, sweaty... after a few minutes, I go, "Hey where's chunky butt?" (she was cloth diapered so it was her nickname at the time). The kids and start looking, with increasing panic, because we're. not. finding. her!!! The kids take off out the culdesac, and head toward an opening from the street over to the main road which is 55mph- but of course you know they are gonna speed!! I hope in my van barefoot, and go the other way. Ther on the other side of our culdesac is a boy from ours just standing at the corner, looking into that culdesac.... Ok, weird.... I decide to drive into that one, and there is MY baby in a house in the exact space as ours, crying at their door, in the very cluttered garage. It amazing I was even able to spot her!! I was in tears, I grabbed her up, and drove back over to ours, the boy just sitting there watching it all happen??? You know he saw her toddle out of our garage, down our driveway, down the road, around the corner, and into SOMEONE ELSE'S garage!! WHY??? Why didn't he take her hand and toddle her back?? He was old enough to know, probably 10-12. Why did he just sit there and watch her?? Of course I was so relieved we had found her. In those minutes you just feel like your heart is dying!! And thank God a predator didn't see her or find her, or heck she didn't go into *their* garage!! I don't even think the people we're even home...

 

Out of all the things I have survived with my children... having them take off HAS to be the worst one!! My older ones never did that, but the younger ones.... Heart attack city!! Jamie alone managed to take off and disappear in the field behind our old house, ran out into the grocery store's parking lot while I was paying- there one minute, gone the next!! It was late and the place was empty, so I didn't mind letting him out of the cart. Out into a VERY crowded mall at closing time, hubby was supposed to be watching him while I paid for his baby sister's new shoes. All this was before he was 3!!! Then a year or so later, he and his sister snuck out while we were all unloading groceries from the car... they had been inside playing upstairs in the loft of our 3000 sq ft home!! My place may be small now, but I love being able to peek out of my room, be doing dishes and still see the whole of the main areas. I always know what they are up to and where they are at.

[Hunter's Moon]

A teacher of mine a few years ago had a granddaughter that had died from an above ground pool breaking, and being crushed against the fence from the water pressure.

 

I believe there are rules as to how far a pool needs to be from a fence, but so many people don't even realize.

 

Going down our street, there are at least 2 visible above ground pools with fences just a few inches away.

[HeathenMom]

my oldest two are very cautious, thank the gods because my youngest is always finding ways to hurt himself.

 

the scariest was the time he had a paintbrush in his mouth, with the brush end out. he tripped and lanced his tonsil with it, my oldest son saw him sitting on his knees struggling to breathe and pulled the paint brush out. he immediately started vomiting and there was a TON of blood. it was terrible and i was so worried he'd punctured his palate or esophagus. ugh.

[6packofun]

I just want to say that the times our kids have gotten hurt enough to warrant a trip to the ER have been in circumstances where to some degree or another I was counting on their OBEDIENCE to not get injured. This isn't always the best policy, even though we all do our very best sometimes and things can't be helped. Even tragically so.

 

I should not have counted on my dd4 to listen to me and stay on the steps like I told her while her brother was swinging his aluminum bat with his t-ball tee!! She got up anyway and was hit in the head/ear and needed stitches--thank God no further damage.

 

Another time, I should have childproofed (padded) a low picture window ledge that I "just knew" someone was going to bonk their head on. Sure enough... stitches in the head for a dd who was goofing around after we moved the furniture around and the couch no longer blocked that windowsill!!

 

I try to look at "worst case scenarios" in those little things that I think could never happen. They sadly do. :(

[King Alfred Academy]

My dear, sweet cousin lost her 23mo ds 7 months ago due to the cord on a Roman Shade. You all were praying for Little Ben during that time (thanks, again). So many people think, "does that *really* happen". Tragically, yes it does.

[MissKNG]

My small girl, at 17 months, came running into the bedroom and lost balance and fell forehead first into the desk drawer. She fell right onto the handle that is kind of like a doorknocker design with two sharp knobs on each end. She landed right on one of the knobs. When I flipped her over, she had a HOLE about the size of a dime on her forehead above her eye. I freaked because I thought I saw bone. 911 was called and we applied pressure to the wound while waiting and that actually closed up the hole. She ended up needing two stitches because the cut wasn't really that big after it closed up.

 

That is probably the worst but we've had plenty of injuries resulting in other ER visits and emergency trips to the Dr.

[mo2]

My dear, sweet cousin lost her 23mo ds 7 months ago due to the cord on a Roman Shade. You all were praying for Little Ben during that time (thanks, again). So many people think, "does that *really* happen". Tragically, yes it does.

 

 

I removed all blinds from my house because of an overwhelming paranoia about this happening.

[snipsnsnailsx5]

Yes its a terrible thread, but I think its a must read for every parent!

 

I have learned a lot on this thread and if we can keep our children safe, or even save one child's life from such horrifying freak accidents..then it was worth it.

[secular_mom]

 

I seem to keep a stockpile of horror stories in my head that I've heard/read about over the last 11 years I've been a parent. They never seem to go away. Its like I hold on to them and replay them over and over so that I can remember to always be careful for those things.

 

 

:iagree: I don't let my kids eat popcorn while we're watching a movie because I heard about a young child choking on popcorn at the movie theater but no one noticed because they were watching the movie, when it was over he was dead. That story truly horrifies me, and makes me thing long and hard about letting kids eat while I'm driving and I've always told them not to eat while I'm in the bathroom because there's no way I'd know if they were choking. But I also have anxiety problems so I'm probably going overboard with that by other people's standards. Oh well.

[LittleIzumi]

Dd was 2 and was freaking out about not getting a candy I had, not believing it was all gone, etc. So I handed her the wrapper--ALL GONE, see? She was in the back of the car (rear-facing) with her sister who was 4. After a bit she stops freaking out. Finally. She stayed totally quiet for a minute or two and suddenly there was this huge gasp/inhale sound and absolutely terrified screams coming from the backseat. From what I can tell & what dd4 said, she put the wrapper in her mouth & choked on it. We would never have known until we got to our destination. :crying:

 

And when she was a baby she was in her bucket seat snapped into the shopping cart seat. She was fussy so I nursed her & put her back in it, but I hadn't buckled it yet (she was a few months old). Suddenly she did that crazy baby flip-over-backwards-instantly move, and the entire carseat FLIPPED OVER backwards, spinning around the little metal bar where the carseat snapped onto. The top edge of the carseat smashed into the bottom of the cart, and so did dd's head. I don't know if the same thing would have happened if she was buckled, but all she did was lean back hard & the force flipped it. She didn't move any weird way out of it.

[Mom0012]

I remember seeing a show when my son was an infant about a little boy who died when he put a balloon near his mouth and it popped. He was 8 years old. When the balloon popped, a piece of it got caught in his throat and covered his windpipe and no one could get it out. Many times since that program, I have thought about how I would perform a tracheotomy (sp?) on my child if that happened. It's just something that's always stuck with me and I hate having balloons around.

 

Lisa

[ondreeuh]

When my oldest was in preschool, she used the handle of a tall cupboard to help herself climb up on a footstool to reach the sink. The cupboard tipped over and a parent helper caught it before it landed on my daughter. That's the story I was told that afternoon, but months later I found out by chance that the parent who saved my daughter had broken her back and was in a wheelchair. I never even got a chance to thank her.

 

My 9 year old climbed out of our backyard when he was 3 and was picked up by the police while walking along a busy street. I was talking with my mom while he stood on the porch and threw the ball for the dog, and suddenly he was gone. It took about 20 minutes to find him and it was absolutely terrifying. Thankfully I had neighbors looking for him too and one of them flagged down the police officer and told him where we lived.

 

My toddler opened the cupboard underneath the sink in my parents' kitchen and got into the Comet. I was *furious* because I had given them safety latches but they didn't keep them on. Poison control told me to give him milk and keep an eye on him, and luckily he was fine.

[Kathleen in VA]

This thread is a good one. I've learned a lot. Mine are older now but the grandchildren will be coming and I need a refresher on all these things.

 

Two things I've heard of happening that thankfully did not happen to me:

 

A young girl (5yo I think) took the lightbulb out of one of these electric window candles people put up at Christmas time and stuck the candleholder in her mouth. She was electrocuted and died.

 

My pastor's son jumped off the diving board at their pool and tried to jump through an inner tube. He went through and hit his head on the inner tube, knocking himself out. He slipped through the inner tube unconscious. Thankfully, someone saw the whole thing happen and went in after him. He was fine, but that was a very close call.

 

Here are my personal experiences:

 

When Dd11 was about 4 or 5, she and her brother set up a "fort" under a table in the living room. They put blankets over the table to hide behind. Next to the table was my secretary-type desk with a ceramic lamp on it. While trying to come out from behind the blanket she pulled on the cord of the lamp bringing it down on her head. It broke and cut her head. She had to have 7 stitches. Btw, heads bleed a lot and very quickly - it was horrifying.

 

Ds23 was messing with some paperwork in a file folder on his way to work one day. He went off the right side of the road, overcorrected, spun around and slammed into a tree. Thankfully, he just broke his right arm in two places and was in the hospital for only two days (the arm needed surgery and had a metal plate put in). Tell your kids that driving is a full-time occupation and requires their full attention. He knew that, but got a bit too confident about his multi-tasking abilities.

 

Dd18 pulled a bookcase over on herself when she was about 6 or 7. It was full of encyclopedias. I heard her scream and ran like wildfire. No injury but that bookcase came out of her room and fast!

 

When Ds22 was about 7yo he pulled the drawers of his dresser out so he could climb them like stairs and the whole thing toppled over. Again, he was okay, but I aged about 5 years that day.

 

Same son asked if he could build a fire in the charcoal grill. He was about 13yo and on a survival skills kick at the time and wanted to be sure he could actually start a fire if he needed to. I was wary but wanted to encourage his independent, growing toward manhood mindset and said sure. I watched him from the kitchen window the whole time and he did fine - built a nice little fire in no time. Then he took out his aerosol can of insect repellant and had the brilliant notion to spray it directly into the fire. The effect was similar to a flamethrower. He was not injured unless you count the damage to his ears from my screaming. Oh. my. word. I aged about 10 years that day.

 

Hope this post helps someone keep their kids safer.

 

Those are all that come to my mind right away.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Kathleen in VA
typo

[angela in ohio]

On that note... did ya guys know Cascade can do a pretty bad chemical burn :( Yeah my 8 yr old when he was 16 months old taught me that...

 

Dishwashing detergent is supposed to be one of the worst. Probably even worse because it's usually under the kitchen sink.

 

I gated off our kitchen until all my dc were at least 4. No children were allowed in it at all. I kept all of the cleaning products in a closet with a door handle cover, in the gated kitchen. My dd still managed to eat deoderant when I was a homeschool conference and dh was watching her. He called the number on the container, and they told him that she would be fine, just thirsty. She was okay.

[Allearia]

We have a desk with a lid. There was a lot of stuff piled on top, and ds5 crushed the tip of his finger and broke the finger and the fingernail came off. Now we have a rule that we can't put anything on the desk.

 

The worst was when he was I think 2. I was right behind him when for some reason he darted behind the car and was about to go into the street when a car went zooming by. I screamed at him to stop and by some miracle he did, and I sat there sobbing and he didn't know why.

 

Also with the same poor ds I was trying out my Ergo baby carrier for the first time when he was 6 months old. Somehow I dropped him on his head on the sidewalk :sad:

[missesd]

I remember seeing a show when my son was an infant about a little boy who died when he put a balloon near his mouth and it popped. He was 8 years old. When the balloon popped, a piece of it got caught in his throat and covered his windpipe and no one could get it out. Many times since that program, I have thought about how I would perform a tracheotomy (sp?) on my child if that happened. It's just something that's always stuck with me and I hate having balloons around.

 

Lisa

 

You sound like me... same name too ;) LOL

 

Years ago I watched one of those survival shows about what to do if you get kidnapped, or held up, etc... One of the things was what to do if your car goes into water. For years I have tried to figure out what I would do if I had the three littles with me. Your supposed to wait till the car goes under and the pressure equalizes to get your car doors open. Only 1 of the 3 swim. I have seriously thought of getting life jackets and keeping them in the car. I drowned when I was 4, pronounced clinically dead on the scene, but the defibrillators brought me back. Water is something that always gets my hackles up where my kids are concerned. One thing I DO want though is a gadget most EMT's have... it has a seat belt cutter and a thing that pops out and breaks the windows without shattering them.

 

Ok, reading this I guess I sound like a paranoid worry wart... I'll own it though. I still hate driving over bridges with kids in the car though- like nails on a chalkboard!!

[Cindy in C-ville]

Okay, here's my quick list:

 

1. I walked into the kitchen and my then 18 mo and 3yo were sitting on top of the dishwasher passing back the Sam-sized childproof Benadryl bottle. Three-fourths of the bottle was gone. We spent the night in the ER. Nothing happened.

 

2. My then newborn son was taking a nap on my bed. He's newborn, so he doesn't move, right? Wrong. My then 4yo got something out of my room and reported back to me "Josiah looks funny." I rushed in and he had scooted himself underneath a pillow and was blue and gurgling, but conscious. My pediatrician assured me that he was fine but saw him anyway. He was fine.

 

3. This same son, when he was 7 yo fell out of a tree while we were hiking far, far from any help. He landed on his head. I, although trained in first-aid, scooped him up immediately. He was hurting and we got him to the ER for an X-ray ASAP. He was fine, but it took some time for him to not hold his head funny.

 

4. Another son fell from the top of a 40-foot Bradford Pear Tree. On the way down he reported thinking, "I wonder how many bones I'm going to break." He was a little sore, but nothing broken. The next day he ran in a 4-mile race.

 

5. The Benadryl-swigging daughter was helping load up the car following our beach vacation. The condominium door slammed and took off the tip of her finger. Blood everywhere. We took her and the finger to the hospital. The doctor sewed it right back on and you can't tell that it happened.

[LibraryLover]

I did the most stupid thing. I put my oldest dd (at not quite 5 mos) in her bucket seat on the kitchen counter as I worked. They tell you all the time to NEVER DO THAT. It's on the handle, the manual etc. She was kicking happily and she most certainly did kick herself off the counter. I screamed as she screamed that heart-stopping scream that has no sound for several seconds. I nearly had a heart attack and I never felt so guilty in my entire life. This baby walked a couple of days before she was 10 months. She was born strong. She was ok, but I could not believe I did such a stupid, stupid thing. I didn't let the poor child sleep for nearly a day.

[missesd]

A young girl (5yo I think) took the lightbulb out of one of these electric window candles people put up at Christmas time and stuck the candleholder in her mouth. She was electrocuted and died.

 

OMGosh... who would have even thought a kid would do that?? I actually thought about buying some of those, as my grandmother has them I was little and I loved looking at them as I lay in bed at night. But I think I'll be passing on that, my kids just might actually try something like that :(

 

Thanks for the warning... especially at this time of year.

[Cindy in C-ville]

Thought of another. My then 5yo daughter was playing around the car with my then 3 yo and 2 yo Benadryl-swigging siblings. They used the latch and opened the trunk and the younger sibs crawled in. 5yo daughter closed the trunk and then got afraid of getting in trouble. Finally she decided to come tell me. I don't think it really was that long b/c they were still having fun in there. That taught me to lock the car doors, even in our driveway.

[Cindy in C-ville]

And another, with same Benadryl-swigging, severed finger dd. Last year when we were in Ukraine, I received emails in rapid succession from my friend with whom my dd was staying and from my other three older dds. Benadryl-swigging dd had been making a cup of tea. She poured boiling water out of the teapot and then as she turned, the tea spilled all over her forearm. My friend scooped her up and put her immediately in the shower with cool water running. She just stayed in the shower with the cool water running and running while my friend called the doctor. Then she just wrapped a blanket around her, still in wet clothes, and took her to the ER. The photo I received in Ukraine was horrible. And there was nothing I could do. Amazingly, there is not a scar. Our doctor credits our friend's quick actions to her incredible recovery.

[DarlaS]

Thought of another. My then 5yo daughter was playing around the car with my then 3 yo and 2 yo Benadryl-swigging siblings. They used the latch and opened the trunk and the younger sibs crawled in. 5yo daughter closed the trunk and then got afraid of getting in trouble. Finally she decided to come tell me. I don't think it really was that long b/c they were still having fun in there. That taught me to lock the car doors, even in our driveway.

 

This is one reason I have never owned a car with a trunk. Since having kids, I've owned a Mustang (hatchback) Taurus station wagon, a minivan and I currently drive a crossover/SUV thing.

 

I did leave a sleeping toddler in the car once while putting away groceries and then realized 20 minutes later that I hadn't seen him in a while. He was awake, hot, and very upset. That still haunts me and he's now 7.

[LittleIzumi]

That same dd also would get the glass Christmas ornaments in her mouth (the balls) and bite down. Broken glass in her mouth over & over again. And then she'd try to eat it.

 

She also climbed in the dryer & was doing her best to shut the door.

 

She's lived to see 3 so far :blink:. Imagining the havoc she can wreak in the rest of her years is kind of terrifying.

[duckens]

--As a teenager babysitting, one of my charges put his arm through the glass storm door. Thank goodness that a nurse lived just a few doors down. She drove him to the hospital for me.

 

Ever since then, I have been paranoid about kids knocking/banging on the glass of a storm door rather than the metal.

 

--A friend of my brother's lost a finger when one of the heavy doors at the YMCA closed on it; the finger was cut off.

 

--C4, whom I used to babysit, fell out of the 3rd story window at his mom's apartment. He had been sitting in the window, and he leaned just enough on the pane/screen to pop it out. He landed on cement sidewalk.

 

He had bruised lungs and a few cuts on his face. He spent a few days in the hospital. He (and his mom) were VERY lucky!!!

[Mejane]

OMGosh... who would have even thought a kid would do that??

 

Thanks for the warning... especially at this time of year.

 

That's the reason for this terrible thread.

[goldberry]

I just want to say that the times our kids have gotten hurt enough to warrant a trip to the ER have been in circumstances where to some degree or another I was counting on their OBEDIENCE to not get injured.

 

:iagree:

The best advice I got when pregnant was that you teach the children over and over again, but NEVER depend on them to obey you. If a 5yo is not old enough to be responsible for ANOTHER 5 yo in their care, then they are not old enough to be responsible for themselves.

 

Haven't we all seen those shows that no matter how much you teach a kid about strangers, or guns, they will STILL go with the stranger and pick up the gun 99 times. NEVER depend on them to obey you.

 

My offering to the look-out items: doggie doors. A lady had a toddler climb through the doggie door and into the pool.

[Catherine]

It was the week we bought our house and the previous owners had a lovely garden including a small, but deep (4 feet or so) manmade pond. My middle son was exploring, and though I was with him, I was at least 10 feet away. I just heard the little "sploosh" of him falling in and then ran to find him all the way under the water.

 

My eldest at just about the same age stepped onto a pool's cover (he was already aware enough not to step into deep water but didn't know water was under it) and sank like a stone, and the cover slipped right over him. Ack!!! We were standing right there and pulled him out before he even inhaled any water-or at least, he didn't cough.

 

Youngest? He was just accidentally dropped on his head about half a dozen times by his loving big brothers.

[Catherine]

My now 17 yo, at the age of 22 months, climbed a fire escape ladder up onto the roof of our apartment-it was a corner rowhouse with a nearly flat roof. It took me awhile to find him. Then when I got up there, I couldn't get back down while holding him. A kind police officer heard me call for help and offered assistance.

 

Boy was the kid ever a climber, a daredevil, a risk taker.

[6packofun]

I forgot to add my unsafe item: Little kids in beds that are too big and/or can move away from the wall (or have too big a space between bed and wall).

 

We have friends who found a really cool loft bed to build for their *18 month old*. They thought that having him sleep on the bottom bed was OK and he got trapped in a space between the wall and the bed, without being able to reach the floor, and he was strangled.

 

When I was a kid, I was jumping between 2 twin beds that could slide/roll on the floor and I got trapped between the wall and a bed. My DOG went to go get my mom and brought her to me! I was not injured, but a smaller child could have been really hurt.

[LizzyBee]

My oldest dd tried climbing up the stairs at 5 mos. She made it to the 3rd stair and then fell. "The book" said that kids climb stairs at 12 mos, so it never occurred to us to block off the stairs at 5 mos.

 

When she was about 5-6 mos, we got a new light/ceiling fan with a remote control in our bedroom. Dd's crib was in our bedroom and the office was in the next room, but partially open to the bedroom. Dd was taking a nap in the crib and dh was working on the computer when he smelled smoke. The light fixture was on fire, and if dh had been downstairs, dd might have died! We don't do remote control lights or fans anymore!

 

When she was 8 mos old, dh was home with her and had to go to the bathroom, so he pulled the playpen over to block the stairs. Dd crawled under the playpen and made it almost to the top of the stairs before she fell. Dh heard her and came running out of the bathroom in time to see her fall. He about had a heart attack.

 

When she was 18 mos old, she rode her little yellow car down the basement stairs. She hit the bridge of her nose and had 2 black eyes.

 

When she was 2, she had her first asthma attack.

 

When she was 4, her eyeball swelled up. I panicked because I've never seen anything like that. She is allergic to rabbits.

 

When she was in kindergarten, she burned her arm when she reached for a hamburger in the school cafeteria, ran across her classroom into a table and broke a rib, and fell off her bunkbed and broke her collarbone while pretending to be a bat.

 

Let's skip a few years....

 

A few months ago, I got a call from dh to tell me he was taking dd to the hospital because she cut her leg on the lawnmower. While I was picturing missing body parts, he added that she cut it on the tow hitch, not the blade. Still, it was cut down to the bone and she has a winner of a scar.

 

Thankfully, my younger kids aren't quite so accident prone!

Edited December 16, 2010 by LizzyBee

[BarbecueMom]

Several months ago, my now 2 1/2 year old son pulled an empty tomato sauce can out of the recycling bucket, tried to pull the lid out, and cut his fingers when they got wedged between the can and the lid. I usually don't put the cans in the bucket for that reason (they stay on the window ledge), but was on the way out the door and threw them in there for expediency. A friend visited last week and said her daughter did the same exact thing recently. No stitches required though.

 

There's been a couple times lately where I've brought the 1-year-old upstairs and the 2 1/2 year old has followed me. I've then forgot to shut the gate, because I wasn't the last one up the stairs. I've gotten to the stairs just as the baby was attempting to go down the stairs, feet or head first. The landing at the bottom of our stairs is a concrete wall, but we keep another baby gate propped against the wall to keep the kids from hitting their head on the wall just in case they trip.

 

DS2 also hid in one of the front bushes outside while I was getting the younger one out of the car. I panicked. DH later took a large chopping implement to the bushes.

 

And then there's the mess I walked into yesterday. Our furnace is shot, and while we wait for the new one to be shipped to our HVAC company, we're staying with FIL. It's a large house, but we've been all sleeping in the same bedroom to avoid panicky toddlers (DS2 in the bed with us and DS1 in a pack-n-play). I tried to put the boys down for naps yesterday, and I heard lots of squealing and giggling. I assumed they were playing peek-a-boo. Eventually, I heard some muffled crying and went to investigate. DS2 was sitting in the window mangling the miniblinds (we don't even have those in our own home because I'm terrified of them). Every pillow and blanket, and the alarm clock, had been tossed into the playpen, half smothering the baby, who was also trying to use the blankets and pillows to climb out. I didn't even bother with naps today, we just went for a car ride.

[littleWMN]

A few years ago I read about a magnetic toy that was a danger... maybe it was Magnetix? It has small magnetic balls and a little boy swallowed two of them, they were in different parts of his intestine and then attracted each other, making a blockage. He died, if I remember correctly.

[Denisemomof4]

when ds18 was a baby he LOVED to walk around in his walker. He started to use it by 6 months and started to walk at 9 months! Anyway, he was just getting used to the walker and someone left the basement door open. He walked through and the walker immediately tumbled. he was hanging off the side of the steps, completely upside down in his walker. Thankfully I got to him before he fell out, headfirst onto the cement!!!

 

younger ds has been hit in a parking lot TWICE now. He was old enough to know better than be careless around cars, and he felt he was too old to hang onto my belt loop or hold my hand. He would just wander and not pay attention. I was ALL EYES after the first hit, the second he just kind of jumped right into a moving car. :eek::eek::svengo:Thankfully he was never hurt.

 

Those are two off the top of my head but I know there are more.

[holdoll]

When oldest dd had just turned 5, I put her in Kindergarten at the nearby elementary school. She was always quite independent and didn't even want me to walk her to her class the first day of school. One day during the third week of school I went to pick her up. I watched all six K classes walk to the cafeteria where the parents waited to take home their children. My daughter wasn't there! The old biddy teacher walked at the front of the line and didn't notice my daughter walk off down the hall.

 

After no help from her, I ran to the office to find the principal. I was so panicked, the secretary took one look at me and asked what was wrong. I couldn't draw in enough air to speak. I was hyperventilating. Somehow I got out that my child was missing.

 

About 1/2 an hour later, the principal found her at the back of a school bus. She wanted to ride with the other kids. :svengo: Each child wore a picture of a school bus or car at the end of the day, so anyone would know with one quick glance where they belonged. Apparently, the bus driver never checked and the teacher never knew she was gone.

 

I put her in private school the next day.

[Shawn On the Border]

When my oldest was 5, we were outside playing around the swing set. My older son had brought out one of my dh's bungee cords that he was playing with. I really didn't realize it was dangerous. We went in the house, and I began making dinner, when I my younger son started screaming from around the corner. My older son had brought the cord inside and stretched it between furniture, and my younger son (2 at the time) had worked really hard to take it off. When it recoiled, it almost hit his eye- the doctor said bungee cords were really dangerous to kids. I felt like such a bad mother- I didn't realize!

[Slartibartfast]

A few years ago I read about a magnetic toy that was a danger... maybe it was Magnetix? It has small magnetic balls and a little boy swallowed two of them, they were in different parts of his intestine and then attracted each other, making a blockage. He died, if I remember correctly.

I saw that. There was a show, "My Kids Ate What?" or something like that. The kid had surgery and lived.

 

Here is the site

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/your-kid-ate-what/about-the-show.html

 

I keep seeing those magnetic ball office toys and it reminds me about that story.

 

Another kid ate a AA battery. :001_huh: How did he even swallow that??

Edited December 16, 2010 by Sis

[RoughCollie]

One thing I DO want though is a gadget most EMT's have... it has a seat belt cutter and a thing that pops out and breaks the windows without shattering them.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/LifeHammer-Orange-Original-Emergency-Hammer/dp/B000BN3A4Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1292474027&sr=8-2