I had to call the Poison Control Center for the very first time today. My daughter ate an unholy amount of toothpaste.
I first noticed the toothpaste all around her mouth after her nap. Seems that sometime during her nap she spirited off to the bathroom for a little snack.
I am not surprised she ate the toothpaste. I am surprised at how much she ate. The tube is (was) 4.6 ounces. It was about half full. It was almost empty when I found it. There was some on the bathroom rug. Nowhere near a half-tube's worth. I'm sure some of it ended up someplace else yet to be discovered, but I believe she ate a bunch of it.
Being that flouride is toxic, especially to 26 pound 2 year olds, I panicked a little. Though the crime occurred at least 4 hours before I discovered the full evidence of it (I didn't check her bathroom when I found her with toothpaste on her mouth - didn't even think of it, actually), I called Poison Control anyway, because you can never be too sure. Turns out she probably would have been vomiting if she'd gotten a toxic dose, which would have been about half of the tube.
So she seems fine - is fine. And two things have been decided in this house:
1) We will no longer buy fruit or bubblegum flavored toothpaste for our children, and 2) We will no longer buy toothpaste with flouride. We have flouridated water. We don't need flouride in our toothpaste. It's poison. And it's dubious whether or not it actually helps teeth. In fact, some claim it actually harms childrens' teeth. I do know it's toxic if eaten by small children. Hell, a 6 ounce tube can kill an adult if eaten.
So, lesson learned - thankfully, without any real harm.
You know, it's awfully hard keeping your eye on an active two year old every second of every minute of every day. The last thing I need to worry about is toothpaste.
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