Swallowed

Well I’ve achieved another parental rite of passage. Gleek swallowed a toy. Okay, it was a piece of a board game, but it is still a new experience for all involved. I’ve had kids eat crayons before, but those are at least semi-digestable. Fortunately the gamepiece in question was a small round glass stone, unlikely to get stuck or to cause damage on the way down.

Gleek was very concerned about the turn of events. Her eyes were about twice their normal size and she kept touching her throat as if she couldn’t quite believe it happened. Toys aren’t supposed to do that kind of thing. So now I have a lap-Gleek who needs reassurance that All Will Be Well.

What amazes me when I think about it is that I’ve been a parent for over nine years without once having a child swallow a toy. To read the warnings on toy boxes it seems as if toys are just lying in wait to jump down small throats. But if I’m inclined to feel smug about my former record I only have to remember that there are many many parents in the world who’ve never been to the emergency room to have objects removed from a child’s nose.

8 thoughts on “Swallowed”

  1. *blink blink*

    But if I’m inclined to feel smug about my former record I only have to remember that there are many many parents in the world who’ve never been to the emergency room to have objects removed from a child’s nose.

    Oh, this is a story that needs telling…

  2. I picked up the habit early of crunching ice once i’d finished with my drink. one evening on a bus to expo 88 with parentals i decided to do this at a bus stop, but didn’t think about it enough, and ended up taking a bite out of the glass instead. couldn’t work out what all the fuss was about – luckily, didn’t try and swallow.

  3. The warnings are mostly choking hazard warnings.

    Goose got in to silica gel once and I was worried sick she had swallowed it and you know they say do not eat on the packages. According to Poison Control it’s just because silica gel is a choking hazard.

    Tell Gleek that it won’t hurt when it comes out but it’ll probably make her poop rather loose. But then you probably know this from watching the crayons return to daylight. 🙂

  4. Re: *blink blink*

    When I was about 6, I had an incident with a Sixlet. They’re those little chocolate, candy-covered balls that come in big tubes, right? So, I decided, for whatever reason, to stick a green one up my nose. When it wouldn’t come back out, I freaked. My parents ended up having to wait for it to heat up enough to squeeze it out. Not my best moment.

    Of course, it isn’t an emergency room story, but a nasal one nonetheless.

  5. Anyone ever seen a magician do the “object up the nose” disappearing trick? It’s pretty good if you do it right. One day, I decided it would be better if I actually shoved a small coin (a pence piece or something, I don’t recall) into my nose, and then spit out the one I had concealed in my mouth.
    In practice, it looked pretty good. Then I discovered it didn’t want to come out. I got it out… eventually.
    Keep in mind, I was way past “old enough to know better.”

  6. Nose? Ha!

    Nose is all well and good, but I’ve had to take my daughter to the emergency room to extract an object from her ear. I blame my brother who gave her the impression that you can make things magically disappear by putting them in your ear.

    Of course, I’ve done the same thing. I showed a kid the put-a-pencil-in-your-ear-and-take-it-out-your-mouth trick, after which he quicky grabbed a sharpened pencil and prepared to jam it point-first into his ear.

    Ah, kids.

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