This Wasn't In The Parenting Books...

I almost don't know how to say this.

Every time I write something down, it just doesn't sound right.

It sounds a little bit crazy.

Far-fetched, if you will.

Like, I never-in-a-million-years thought I would be saying something like this.

So, I will just say it.

Are you ready?







My son ate a light bulb.







No kidding. The kid BIT, CHEWED, and SWALLOWED the glass part of a nightlight light bulb. Want the whole story? If so, keep reading.

Jack has "quiet time" every day after lunch. This has replaced nap time. He usually stays up there for an hour or so. It gives us both some down-time and is a nice break in the day. (Who am I kidding...it's mostly for me.) So, yesterday, he was having quiet time in his room and Lonnie and I were downstairs watching TV. We heard Jack coming downstairs and figured he was just coming out to whine about some toy being broken or not wanting to stay up in his room. The first thing out of his mouth when he looks at me was, "That was icky." And he spit. Confused (because there isn't anything edible in his room), I asked him, "What was icky?" His reply?

"The NIGHTLIGHT."

Hmmmm? Come again? The nightlight was icky? Not exactly something you want to hear from a 4 year old boy.

I bolted upstairs to find his nightlight, in the outlet, with the bulb broken. The entire glass part of the bulb was broken off of the metal part of the bulb. When I saw this, I may or may not have muttered some very inappropriate words in front of my 4 year old. I quickly scanned the area and picked up the shards of glass that I saw on the floor, unplugged the nightlight and ran downstairs. I told Lonnie "We're going to the hospital."

Before we left for the hospital, we sat down with Jack for a second and asked him what exactly happened with the nightlight. His responses -

"I put it in my mouth."

"It tasted icky."

"I chewed it, like this."

"I swallowed it, like this."

We asked him 20 times if he swallowed it, and his response was consistently YES. So, off we went to the ER.

We walked up to the ER desk and they asked why we were there. "Um, well, my son, you see, he, um, bit and chewed and swallowed the glass part of a light bulb." I'm sure my face was bright red. It's a bit embarrassing to admit that your child has just swallowed glass when you weren't watching him. Both of the receptionists gasped. You know that's not a good sign.

We got back to triage and got a room really quickly (the ER happened to be very slow - something I was praying for while we were driving there!) and saw the doctor. They took x-rays of Jack's neck, chest, and stomach. And the results were - nothing. They didn't see anything. Which is great. They probably wouldn't be able to see just glass anyway, but the doctor wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything else stuck in there (since obviously our kid has a thing for putting stuff in his mouth). The doctor thoroughly checked his mouth and gums and teeth and didn't see any cuts or blood or glass. Now, we just watch him and make sure blood doesn't start coming out of places it's not supposed to, or that he doesn't get a fever or start throwing up.

When we came home, I looked more thoroughly in Jack's room for glass pieces and I found quite a few more little tiny pieces on his carpet. One of them had blood on it. Good grief.

Apparently it's time for us to provide Jack with more APPROPRIATE things to stick in his mouth. We know he has a lot of sensory input needs for his mouth, we just never thought he would resort to a light bulb.

So...needless to say...Jack no longer has a nightlight. All of his outlets have plugs in them. He had several conversations with us and the doctor about only putting food in his mouth.

Yesterday was exhausting! Here's a picture of the infamous nightlight. Sorry it's fuzzy, it was taken with Lonnie's phone and we were heading out the door to the hospital.