From Soap to Nuts

I was enjoying a nice, hot shower this morning, while Tommy played with the shower curtain and tried to climb in the tub. This is our usual morning routine, so I wasn't too concerned, until I heard him coughing like he had something stuck in his throat. "Ack, ack" he hacked, "Ack ack ack."

I stuck my head out of the shower to find my son foaming at the mouth, mad-dog style. His breath held the clean promise of an Irish Spring.

"You didn't eat the soap!" I cried, as I did a quick finger-sweep to make sure there were no lingering pieces. He just grinned through the bubbles.

Having recently read Heth's expose on cooking with dish soap, I wasn't too worried about Tom's health. Until I put in my contacts and examined the bar of soap he'd been munching on.

A large hunk had been gnawed off the end, maybe an inch long by half-an-inch thick. There were clear bite marks on the soap where his little teeth had done their work.

And so I made my first call to poison control, where a lovely lady with (ironically) an Irish accent told me that soap is not poisonous, but might irritate his digestive tract. A little diaper cream would be all the first aid required.

Phew. Now if I could just get him to bathe with the stuff instead of eating it ...

Now, the finale. Tom just found a chocolate-covered nut on the floor and devoured it. (Horrors, nuts and chocolate eaten by a nine-month-old!) I think I win the bad mommy award today.