I really had a lot of housework to do as we had been away for a few days and the house was really dusty. My husband Jim had gone back to work and there was just me and little Sam our 14 month old son in the house for the day. After I had breakfasted us both I had to get that pesky work done so I got Sam sorted out in the dining room in his playpen with all his favourite toys. He was smiling and enjoying himself as I left him to go upstairs and start the dreaded cleaning.
I thought “I’ll just dust one room at a time and keep coming down in between to check on him unless I hear something” (Our house is quite open plan and I would have been able to hear him if he started crying from anywhere in the house.) Anyway I dusted Jim’s and my bedroom in about 10 minutes flat and went down and there he was trying in vain to put some lego pieces together.. His coordination was still a little off then.. so I ran back upstairs and tackled Sam’s room.
I got through it as quickly as I could and ran downstairs again and couldn’t believe it when Sam was nowhere to be seen! He couldn’t have got out of his playpen could he? He had never before shown any inclination to climb out it so I was even fearing someone had taken him at that point. I heard a little noise coming from the kitchen which is just off the dining room so I ran in there and there was Sam sitting in front of the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink.
He looked up at me and gave me a big smile – with a bottle of household bleach in his hands!!! I snatched it away from him maybe a little abruptly and he started crying. I comforted him and took him out of the kitchen and he soon calmed down again. I just couldn’t believe he had managed to climb out of his playpen and this was what terrified me. What if I hadn’t come down to check on him just then and he had managed to get the top off the bleach bottle? I know that bleach bottle tops are largely child-proof but in that same cupboard were dishwasher tablets, Hard surface detergent sprays and lots of other possibly harmful chemicals.
No doubt he would have tried to drink the bleach if he’d got it open or sucked on one of the sprays or chewed on a dishwasher tablet and he could easily have been severely poisoned. Jim came home that night and I told him what had happened. We got on the internet that very night and ordered a baby video monitor and Jim, who’s quite the handyman put a lock on the kitchen cupboard door which had the bleach and other cleaning products in it.
Baby Video Monitors in the USA
Video Baby Monitors in the UK
We were REALLY lucky and ever since we have taken no chances with Sam. The monitor I have clips onto my belt and whilst I am cleaning or doing any other household chores I can glance every few seconds at Sam in his new (much higher walled) playpen. Anybody reading this PLEASE buy yourself a baby monitor, preferably a video baby monitor. Our kids grow so fast we can’t assume what they can and can’t do from one day to the next!
Joanne Chester – UK
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