22 September 2006

Kids and medicines - a lesson

Always keep the medicines away from the reach of your kids.

I have heard and read this warning several times but I guess I wasn't listening. We learnt it the hard way.

Yesterday, we were out most of the day cleaning out my wife's office. Everything was OK when we came back. As I pepared Rahil for bed, she asked me whether she could have some more "squares" - her name for Nutrilite Kid's Vitamin C. Noticed that we had left the bottle on the top of the table by mistake. I refused as she already taken her normal dose (1 tablet a day).

Today morning woke up to find Rahil crying and complaining of a stomch ache. I woke up and took her to the bathroom. On the potty, she started vomiting.

Cleaned her up. I made her some milk and put her to bed after she had finished drinking.

About half an hour letter, she threw up everything on her bed. The whole room was stinking of spolied milk. Rahil really looked pitiful but the brave girl didn't even cry.

Cleaned her up again and I made a quick solution of sugar and salt to prevent dehydration. Something I learnt in India long ago.

At first I thought that it might be a case of food poisoning but I remembered the conversation I had with her last night.

On questioning, Rahil confirmed that she had eaten it a couple of times. On checking the bottle, discovered that the once full bottle was a quarter empty.

Rushed her to our doctor. The doctor said that it was a case of Vitamin C overdose. I never knew that one could overdose on Vitamin C. Fortunately, Vitamin C is water soluble and the excess would go out with the urine. However, as it is a type of acid, it can cause some problems with the stomach inner lining.

The doctor said that it was not serious and prescribed some medicine. Recomended that we give Rahil some milk culture (Vitagen or Yakult).

Rahil vomited once more on the way back but she's much better now. In fact she's sleeping peacefully in the room as I type this right now.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Baby, I remenber I use to do the same when i was a kid!! Baba use to keep the medicine on top of the cupboard, thinking that the medincine was cough syrup(quite addictive & pleasant taste)and vitamin C I consumed quite a few capsules & drank quarter bottle of god knows what medicine! hehehhehe i felt sick of course....I learnt my lesson & hope Rahil did too, just be cautious next time where you keep the medicine....Ciao

Anonymous said...

sure one can overdoes on vitamin c... or any other vitamins. the keyword is 'overdose'...take more than recommended so anything taken more than recommended will make one sick, even some food!

sorry to hear about that, adam, but thank god there was no real danger. one must be very careful with pills, vitamins, medicine when children are around. the advise is always that to make sure the medicine/vitamins are out of reach of children.

*lynne* said...

oh my! that must have been a very worrying time for you - glad things worked out for the best, and that Rahil is doing much better... you learnt a lesson the painful way, but certainly not in the most painful way possible, thank goodness for that!

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