A word of caution
If the check out woman at the grocery store decides to give your toddler a sticker on your way out, and you debate as you walk to the car whether or not to allow said toddler to hold the sticker for the drive home, do not. Even if said toddler has not put anything in his mouth other than food for months, do not. Even if said toddler is only presently interested in sticking his fingers on and off of the sticker and the thought of trying to eat it has not entered his mind, do not. Even if you have only a five minute drive home and you are certain (almost certain) that the thought will not cross his mind before you get there, do not. Even if you know that taking said sticker away from said toddler will result in a huge scream fest in the parking lot and all the way home, do not; do not let said toddler hold the sticker for the ride home.
If you do, you may find out any combination of the following:
Letting said toddler hold the sticker on the way home will result in gagging sounds coming from the back seat 1 minute from home, causing you to do a lightning speed pullover off the side of the road as you envision yourself trying to get the buckle of the safety seat undone while your child chokes to death.
Scrambled eggs and raisin toast for breakfast make for particularly putrid smelling vomit.
There is no easy way to clean puke out of a car seat strap and the INSIDE of the buckle.
That the people you walk by on your way into the house will not give you a sympathetic look for holding a shirtless child in 65 degree weather, despite the smell emanating from you both.
Even after you have cleaned everything and started your additional load of laundry the smell will remain...somewhere.
You have no idea how to remove your carseat cover for cleaning because, as it turns out, you have not cleaned it since you bought it like 10 months ago, and frankly, you don't have time to figure it out right now. There will probably be an edit later adding an additional lesson about what happens when you leave a pukey car seat cover in a closed car all day.
That Mommy Fear can rear its ugly head at any time. This time it was a sticker, and that time it was a zipper.
posted by beth @ 11:20 AM
21 Comments:
OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!
The same exact thing happened to me, minus the sticker but in its place put a cheerio, this weekend, and I actually have a draft of a post lingering in my inbox.
I had to pull over into a closed dealership and cry as I saw projectile vomit spewed all over my new leather seats. Oh, and the horror of thinking that your child is DYING in the back seat as you sit helplessly behind the wheel because some idiot can't merge onto the freeway fast enough.
then, the whole, how to assemble/disassemble the damn carseat cover. You'll read more in my post (i'll probably post it tomorrow or on Saturday, once I get the right amount of horror written in).
I TOTALLY FEEL YOU.
thanks for the tip. Isn't it amazing how the most benign things can cause such huge ordeals?
and poopydigs, be glad it was leather. at least then you can wipe it off rather than have it soak clear down to the core of the seat.
I think all kids puke in the back seat of the car at least once. Some even when they are older and you tell them to do it on the floor. Trust me, it doesn't come out of the carpet and floor mats any better than the seat. I recommend a solution of white vinegar and water, an old tooth brush and paper towels. When it is dry, give it a good spary of Febreze. Could also wash the seat with shaving cream and rinse. It makes a good cleaner for seats and carpet.
Sam's thought process:
Hey, this is kinda sticky.
Some of the food Mom gives me is kinda sticky.
This must be a new food. Think I will give it a try. Don't think I care for this. Better send Mom a clear message so she won't make me try this food again. Think I will give breakfast back to her.
Awful. Just awful. Why the H-E-L-L do they give stickers to toddlers anyway? Like really? And then make us the bad guys for taking it away. For crap sakes!
Oh I can sympathize.
I had hoped that by the time Avery got to be Sam's age the fear of all-things-inserted-into-mouth might be lessened, but apparently that is not the case.
Good luck with the pukies, I can't handle it. Guess I will probably have to learn one day.
Oh my! The way you describe it I can smell it over here! I'm so sorry! If I were there, I'd have given you a sympathetic look!
Who knew a sticker would cause so much stink? Thanks for the tip: No stickers for toddlers. Check out people should really ask first before giving your kid something.
The smell will go away. Boo puked all over his crib the other night coating everything. He never bothered to cry or anythign when he did it so when I went to go get him in the morning I was met with the smell and the site of it all. The good news and point of this story is that after a week or so, after its all been cleaned, the smell will go away.
Poor things! Thanks for the advice I'll remember to watch out for stickers from now on.
Same goes for band-aids when you're going home from a doc appt and they had they're finger pricked. Band-aids have the same result. As do little hair ties left on the bed....thankfully little breastfed baby vomit isn't hard to clean out of sheets.
Poor kid! And poor mom! At least his body did what it had to do to keep him from choking. The way their bodies work never cease to amaze me.
Let us know how the ongoing vomit clean up goes!;)
ack! sorry to hear it but glad Sam was ok.
My youngest swallowed one of those magnetix metal balls once. talk about a freak out. Can I tell you how I had to, um, watch for it to reappear at a later date and time? not fun. I'd really rather have had him throw it up.
I hope you get the smell out soon. Maybe you could keep some fun things in the car to distract him from things you need to take from him?
OH wow. OH no. i'm so sorry. i have no words.
LMAO! I'm so sorry you went through that, but having an equally disgusting experience this week, I think I earned it. Thanks for the tip!! :)
Oh Beth, I had a similar thing but it was a poop explosion and I am now an expert at taking apart carseats to wash them, re-threading straps, etc.
Then I read your Mommy Fear post and related as well. We had a choking incident on this dang vitamin the doctor said to give her and now I won't do it anymore. I have nightmares about how I blanked on what I learned in the infant CPR class. AND we are about to try and move with a 5 month old.
At your advice, I am starting my own blog, but I want to pimp it out a bit before I give you the address. Hope you will visit me there in the future.
I'm glad Sam was able to clear his airway. If the lady gave the sticker directly to the child, can you sue the store for a new car seat?
It's kinda funny that you have that David Smells book over on your sidebar now.
We mommies seem to learn things the hard way. Yuck, in fact, double yuck! Vomit seems to be the hardest smell to get rid of. Good luck.
Hugs to mommy & Sam!! I'd call the manager just to give them the info--they wouldn't want any child to be in danger, of course.
And, be warned about the low-lying balloons in bins at your local party store.....
PS: Go get your Lollipop!! (I'll send it to you via email, too)
Car seats and puke do not mix. I am so sorry. DD #2 throws up whenever she is too hot. I once spent three hours cleaning up my built in child seat in my van. Ugggllhhh.
we've had the puke-in-the-carseat many times.... and almost always while on a long roadtrip... makes for a pleasant-smelling vacation.
My younger son had yellow smiley face poo on several occations after trips to Wally World. His older brother would feed them to him and he ate them right up. Leaves can make them puke too.
Oh my goodness! That is scary. My son was just given 4 stickers on one of our last trips to the grocery store. The lady kept sticking them all over him and I'm like "enough already!" but I didn't want to be rude so sure enough I put him in his carseat covered with stickers. After reading this, I'll never do that again! So glad your little one is OK.
Ha! I laughed out loud at this, though I of course feel your stinky pain. No sticker for toddler, check.
Oh my. The exact same thing happened to me, she got a sticker from some friendly unknowign cashier and pormptly put it in her nouth while we were driving home. She started gagging; I started freaking. I pulled over and looked in her throat and there the darn glittery thing was, halfway down! We headed to the dr.... she'd successfully swallowed it by then, he even made sure for me. Still, I filled her up with fluids all night long to be sure!
(((Hugs!)))
Lei from My Many Colored Days
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