So, the other night we’re in the kitchen, and our son crawls out and pulls himself up on the couch. (Yes, our couch is in our kitchen. It’s a long story.) He was chewing on something, and I saw a flash of what I thought was something white-colored. My the time I stuck my finger in his mouth to try to fish out the offending item, it was pretty much gone.
I chalked it up to that single piece of (unused) toilet paper that had been sitting its lonely self on the floor of the bathroom through the course of the day, since he had just come from that direction. After all, it fits right up there with his recent adventure of discovering and sucking up a small puddle of melted snow on the linoleum. And then licking. The floor. Around it. *shudder* I mean, I may not mind mud, and I might be right there with Calah when it comes to washing hands, but… yeah. Licking linoleum is a little disconcerting, nonetheless.
Anyway. I went into the bathroom a few minutes later and discovered:
Exhibit A: the single piece of toilet paper, still lonely, and still on the floor.
Exhibit B: the board that we keep up across a small section of the wall by our toilet has been pulled down, exposing the fiberglass insulation behind it.
-_-
So then I’m second-guessing myself, thinking, “Was it actually pink? And I just thought it was white?” Now, mind you, it’s been probably about five minutes, and the Wee Goon has been playing his merry way around the kitchen, acting like his normal self. But I thought, “I should find out if I need to, like, go get some syrup of ipecac or whatever it’s called.”
Now, at this point I’m remembering my days at the preschool when the little stuffed bear and his handler from the Health Department would show up and give this little presentation on washing your hands. Every kiddo got a sticker, a coloring book, and this handy magnet for Mom and Dad that had the number for the Poison Center on it.
But we don’t have great cell reception inside our apartment, and it wasn’t like my kid was convulsing on the floor, so I thought, “Rather than be the panicky parent, let’s see if the Poison Center has a website. Maybe I can resolve this without dialing a number.”
So I searched ‘poison center fiberglass insulation’.
You want to know what kind of results I got?
Links to articles about rodent poison. Apparently the poison center doesn’t have a website. (Or I just couldn’t find it.)
This is the part where my gut wavers on the idea of being as stalwart as Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ gut and gets a slightly tremulous sinking feeling.
So then I Google ‘my kid ate insulation’. Yeah, this blog post’s title is in honor of that search query.
This gave me results for people asking on Yahoo Questions about when their pet ate insulation. I said kid here, people! And then there’s one that says, “My 11-month old just ate insulation, what do I do?” (The Wee Goon will very soon turn that very age. Irony? I think not.)
So I clicked.
The answers she got ranged from, “OH-MY-GOODNESS-GET-THAT-KID-TO-THE-EMERGENCY-ROOM-NOW” to “You should probably call the Poison Center Hotline just in case” to “I and/or my husband works in HVAC and encounter that stuff all the time, have swallowed it, etc, to no ill effect, but we’re adults, sooo…”
At this point I thought, “Yeah, you know, I’m gonna call.”
So after once more eyeing my burbling Wee Goon, I bundled up and headed out the door to call the Hotline from our driveway, where we invariably get better reception. Or at least I do. My husband’s cell phone gets far better reception inside than mine does. Whatever.
One ring.
They answer.
Me: “So, my son may or may not have swallowed some fiberglass insulation and I wasn’t sure if it was poisonous or not.”
Poison Center Lady: “How long ago was this?”
Me: “About ten minutes ago; I tried Googling to see if I could find out if it was poisonous but all I got were answers ranging from to , so I thought I should call.
PCL: “Yeah, that’s why you shouldn’t really look online, you should just go ahead and call. Has he been pulling at his mouth, gagging, spitting, or anything?”
Me: “Err, no. He’s been acting like his normal self.”
PCL: “Okay, I don’t think it’s toxic, but let me double-check.”
PCL: “It’s non-toxic if ingested, but may cause some minor skin irritation.”
Me: “Thank you!”
So, yeah. You there. The person who got to my post because you, too, Googled ‘my kid ate insulation’? You heard the lady. Call them.
Really, in any situation like that, call them. It can’t hurt.
They’re not going to use your first name and zip code to track you down, steal your kid, and say you’re an unfit parent because your child decided to do some home renovation. (At least, the unmarked black helicopters haven’t shown up at my door yet.)
Unless you call and say that you’ve been offering your child ammonia and bleach as his accompanying dinner beverage. They might get suspicious then.
(Oh, and you know what? The next day, he pulled some uneaten rice cake out from under the couch. And ate it. And it was white. And I was all, “Oh, snap. Was that what you were eating?” Gotta love it.)
All this to say: it happens.
You are not an unfit parent.
Those times when your kid licks the linoleum, or eats insulation, or inadvertently scatters his cup of dry cereal during a church service, bringing new meaning to the Castin Crowns lyric, “Show me just how far the east is from the west…”?
Those times happen.
Google can attest.
I can attest.
The mama who approached me after church to tell me that she remembers when her son spilled his cereal during church and that she remembers what it felt like to want to crawl under her chair because of it… can attest.
God’s grace is sufficient.
Now go have a cup of coffee.
Thanx I was worried cuz my 14 month old ate some nd I didn’t know if it was poisonous 🙂
Like I said in my post… it never hurts to call poison center if you have any concerns – seriously, it took me two minutes to do so, and they’re not going to go all “oh-my-goodness-you’re-a-horrible-person!” on you. Nevertheless, I wanted to stick this out there in case anyone, like myself, tried Google first. 😉
Thank you for this! My stomach dropped to the floor when I thought my daughter ate insulation. She is eight though yes I said eight. We are redoing our bathroom and she was in there playing with it supposed to be brushing her teeth. Yes I asked her about it. But it looks like cotton candy. Yes I’m sure she absolutely knows better than to put it in her mouth. But I’m a mom and my brain goes right to the worst case scenario ever. I did go to the manufacturers website and it does list all the side affects, dangers and warnings. Your blog made me laugh and feel reassured. Thank you for that.
These suppliers usually make a point of offering a large variety of products from different manufactures so as to give the customers a wide range from which to choose.the insulation suppliers ought to be willing to help and give customers advice on the best products from which companies which can do a particular job. If you are businessman that deals in large scale building then they will certainly be with you all the way giving you advice and making sure that you always come back. They also offer services of high quality, support to all their clients, products which are of high quality at affordable prices and any other service that you might inquire of them.There are many people who have homes and do not know the first thing about energy saving benefits that can be attained by insulation. In such a case it would be wiser to talk to these insulation suppliers
http://www.insulationsuppliersuk.co.uk and they will certainly offer the required advice and tell you the benefits of these insulation. it the first step towards saving energy in your home.thank you for you time
Thank you for posting! We recently had our AC repaired and ever since little wads of yellow insulation have been falling out of one of our vents. I just pulled a little blob of it out of my baby’s mouth. Thankfully, she didn’t ingest any, but I was very relieved to read your post!
This just happened to me as well! Quite nerve-wracking but I felt much better after I called poison control and the lady said as long as he swallowed it and wasn’t coughing or choking he’d be fine. She suggested lots of fluids and snacks to hep it pass quickly.
I just called poison control because my 18 month old ate insulation. He will pick at anything that has fuzz.. Unknown to us he has been tearing bits off of a brand new role of insulation we had for a renovation project. He found a hole and dug right in. My 8 year old saw him do this but did not feel he needed to tell anyone until I was on the phone with PC. They were more concerned with his skin being irritated than him swallowing it. They said as long as he wasn’t gagging or having wheezing he should be just fine.. I had images of his insides being ripped to pieces!!!!!!!!Thanks to reading this I called just to see instead of taking him to the ER. He acts perfectly normal by the way!
Haha, I got to this blog because my kid ate insulation, too! Thanks for the post 🙂
Thank you soooo much for putting this out there!
Ugh thank goodness I was worried sick my one year old ate a piece when turned my back for one second guess I don’t need to call poison control thanks
My kid may or may not have eaten yellow fiberglass insulation about 30 mins ago, but was acting fine! Has been down for nap for the last 15. Thanks for the sweet level headed post & sage advice to call poison control 🙂
thanks for nothing . Story was too long to find a answer.
Thank you for this!!!!
This is amazing, thank you for writing this.
I seriously can’t thank you enough for having this post!! I just about had a heart attack when I thought, just now, that my daughter are some insulation! You are the reason I didn’t grow an ulcer today and sprout all grey hair!! Bless you ❤
the thing is is that im checking if its bad for me myself to ingest before i attempt to:)))
I’m forty and just touched installation and then touched my lips(mouth) my lips r burning my stomach is yoozie and throat is tingling. I hope this is all that’s going to happen. VERY ANNOYING!
I understand that you wanted to spice up your story with all the unimportant “funny” stuff but all of the extra stuff was unecessary and stupid. I googled this purely out of curiosity but if I had been a worried parent looking for answers, skimming through all the extra BS in the way to find the actual point would have just pissed me off.
i just ate fiberglass with my butthole do i need to call an ambulance? should have done my research before trying to have anal with the wall.
Alright guys my rectal cavity has been examined and my ass is going to survive. No ambulance, just a doctors appointment. Hopefully you all learn from my example. Never put fiberglass in your ass.
Cum in my butt
yo fuck biden tho…. nigga cant remember what his own dick looks like.
ur a useless piece of garbage and i hope ur family systematically commits suicide in front of u
go to mcdonalds and buy a drink only to take the straw and toss the drink u wont be needing that unless u get thirsty when u bust a nut, anyways jerk off and bust a nut in a litle container and put the tip of the straw in the cum and now blow into the opposite end of the straw that DOESNT have cum on it and blow gently and boom u have blown ur first cumbubble
you get the cum-bubbles on a new national holiday BJ-Day
im gonna fucking kill myself, any suggestions on how i should do it?
bryce looks like a fortnite default skin with fetal alcohol syndrome
Ya Masterbate and hang yourself faggot
You masterbate and kill yourself
Thank you!
Thank you SO MUCH for this post!!!!