THE TWELVE POSIONS OF CHRISTMAS
What item will baby pick first?
My first guest for Christmas brought me one Christmas tree.
My second guest for Christmas brought two poinsettia plants for me.
My third guest for Christmas brought for me three boxes of xylitol. (artificial sweetener)
My fourth guest for Christmas brought to me four lanterns with lamp oil and the poison villain is lurking behind the Christmas tree.
My fifth guest for Christmas brought to me five packs of cigarettes.,
My sixth guest for Christmas brought to me six cases of beer.
My seventh guest for Christmas brought to me seven bottles of vitamins with iron and the poison villain lurked behind the Christmas tree.
My eighth guest for Christmas brought a cold to share and eight kinds of cough syrup.
My ninth guest for Christmas brought a bag with eight kinds of makeup.
My tenth guest for Christmas brought to visit me ten running children each with their own tube of tooth paste.
My eleventh guest for Christmas brought to me craft kits for everyone one with twelve containers of glue.
My twelfth guest for Christmas brought all of his twelve medications and the poison villain lurked behind the Christmas tree.
The lyrics to my ‘Poison” version of the old favorite carol has no rhyme nor does it have any kind of rhythm. I hope it did accomplish drawing your attention to the fact the there is a lot of distracting hustle and bustle during the holidays. Unintentional poisonings occur without rhyme or rhythm, much like the laxities of my poetry skill . Routines are disrupted. People come and go bringing into your home an overabundance of items that could potentially poison your child if someone is not very careful. While the words to my song only has a hint of a favorite seasonal song, without a doubt the poison villain can easily be hidden behind something with attractive decorations.
Christmas is only a few weeks away. People are busy decking their halls with all sorts of stuff that is bright and shiny or looks like candy and juice. Parents, brother, sisters, babysitters are all distracted with the festivities that too many tragedies or near tragedies occur.
Statistics reveal that holiday home mishaps send 12,oo0 people to the emergency room annually with all kinds of injuries. Between Thanksgiving and New Years, calls to the Poison Control Center increases nearly three times over the rest of the year.
Annually, with incidents rising, there have been 2.4 million exposures to poisonous substances. 80% of these involve children less than four years old. How could this be happening to so many small children?The answer lies within the developmental characteristics of that age group. As older and wiser caretakers we do have the responsiblity to recognize the inability of a child to perform other than his/her developmental age dictates.
The most common time of day, any time of the year, when accidental poisonings occur is during the” arsenic hour”. Typically this is around five and six in the evening when dinner is being prepared. Everyone is tired and hungry. The phone is ringing. The potatoes are bowling over on the stove. Instead of carefully supervising the little on, the adults get distracted. You got the picture. Mom used Mr Clean or Windex to clean up a mess. To a child this could look like what? A bottle of Mountain Dew? Many there is some blueberry juice in that colorful jar.
1. The child can not read a WARNING label.
2. They are fascinated by colorful labels with products that look and smell good enough to eat.
3. They are naturally inquisitive and use all of their senses to explore an interesting object. Something that looks good, familiar, will automatically go right into the mouth to taste.
a. Toddlers and pre-school children can mistake chemical products for candy or juice. (Never call medication “candy”.) Decongestants may appear to be a ‘red hot’. A potassium pill looks like and M&M. My purple Advair dickus looks similar to a pink Bubblelious Gum dispenser.
b. A crawling baby is directly on the floor where many dropped items go unnoticed to the one who cleaned the floor. Anything could be down there; pennies, pins and needles, medication, mold or ant poison. Small batteries are shiny, easy to swallow and burn on the way down. Unless the dog found it first and no one know why Fido is sick.
Any thing that is in too big a quantity can be potentially poisonous. It could be swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
Items like chemical cleaners are a no brainer. But what about the junk stuffed in my purse? What is lying around on the bathroom counter or kitchen table?
Here is a partial list of items most of us would never think of to not be careless with.
Cosmetics, personal hygiene like deodorant, Vix, topical creams, gels, ointments, prescription medications, over the counter medications, vitamins(especially those really good tasting colored vitamins). Cold and cough medication, antihistamines for allergies and colds AND this one may come a surprise-TOOTHPASTE (One can overdose on the fluoride. I am know mothers who have given their children each a tube of tooth paste to carry around to snack on. They did get sick.)
Don’t forget the makeup in the purse, the shaving cream the kids used to paint with in pre-school is toxic. Glue is nothing to play with. By the way super glue and eye drops containers look very much a like. Don’t forget about the pretty colored nail polish remover or the alcohol which grandma swears you must use to get a fever down. DO NOT EVER do an alcohol bath.
I will never forget a tiny little boy I cared for in Pediatrics. He had been born two weeks before as a perfectly healthy newborn with developmentally appropriate large motor movements and a loud cry. The January day I was assigned to him, he had been diagnosed with paralysis from botulism poisoning.
Apparently all the relatives had gathered to see the baby at a family Christmas party. The mother was exhausted because her little boy was non-stop crying. One of the aunties volunteered to give her break. After all, she was the expert babysitter in the family. The great-aunt used an old-fashioned remedy to quiet a wailing child; honey on a pacifier. That seemed so’ natural’. Please DO NOT EVER GIVE A BABY HONEY. It has botulism in it. As adult we can shrug of a tiny amount, but a baby cannot.( Botulism occurs naturally in many things. Even the heat of an autoclave will not kill the spores. Just a teaspoon full in a town’s water supply could do the town in for good.) Every Christmas for the last 30 years I think of the little boy lying in the isolate unable to move or cry.
My lyrics had “packs of cigarettes’ in it. Everybody knows those aren’t good for anyone. The cigarette butts are lethal. They contain a very large dose of nicotine trapped in the filter. When child or animals eats it they get very sick. Remember babies will pick up even a piece of lint off of the floor and put it in their mouths.
The last items do not make up a complete list. Please be aware of all the dangers of your Christmas tree for you children and your pets. The needles off of the branches are not easily digested. Swallowing them can irritate and cause vomiting and/or puncture the lining of the intestines.
Haven’t we all seen someone eat spoons full of sugar. Mary Poppins even gave ‘a spoon full of sugar to make the medicine go down.’ (NO honey, for the baby.) I can imagine a kid thinking that is sugar is sweet so much artificial sugar be sweet. Artificial sugar in overdoses can make anyone sick. Watch those packets.
I know first hand about unintentional poisoning. When I was three, my four-year old sister and I were left alone often in our parent’s apartment. I was hungry. I remember this really good tasting orange pills that Mommy had let me eat. There were gobs in this big bottle. I remember climbing on the toilet to be able to stand in the sink so I could get into that mirror thing were Mommy kept the orange candy. I ate the entire contents of baby aspirin. My sister was jealous so she told on me. Long story short, my stomach got pumped. This resulted in permanently damaging my esophageal valve.
In my next video blogs on You Tube the granddaughters and I will be demonstrating areas( like the top of the stairs and under the sinks) to install safety latches and gates to prevent injuries in the 10 month old baby in the house. Prevention is truly worth much more than a pound of cure.
If an accident does occur remove the child to a safe location and call poison control at 800-222-1222. Depending on what you believe tha victim has ingested, or inhaled they will instruct you in what to do. Inducing vomiting is no longer recommended.
In a subsequent blog I will go over some resources and basic life saving things you can do to help a child if they are poisoned.
Please click here to view No Non-cents Nanna’s blog on Blogspot.
http://nonon-centsnanna.blogspot.com/
A special thank you to the CDC for providing articles to assist me putting together this blog.
Disneyfamily.com
&
This is Malika Bourne the No Non-cents Nanna saying, “Make good choices.”
Let’s Make a Deal: Save the Date For Free E-book
Practical and positive approaches to getting the kids to listen and be s
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Let’s Make a Deal!
For those who know me, I don’t buy lottery tickets, I don’t do give- aways.
I do love to barter and help out friends. How about you?
Last year, I befriended a gentleman from Australia on goodreads.com . He asked me to read his book. I read his e-book,(The Skin of Water) as I often do for friends OK, sorry, I admit,I have a lot of e-books on my Kindle that I have not had a chance to read yet.
I have to say that my friend G. S. Johnston’s book, The Skin of Water, is a winner. I love it as much as Gone With the Wind; I read that book 5 times before I graduated from High School.
Here’s my deal; No Curtain; No Box; No Door.
By September 28 and 29th I will give you the link to get a FREE e-book copy of G. S. Johnston’s THE SKIN OF WATER. (adult book)
- If you are an author, especially a YA author, I will interview you on my blog. You can get your friends to check your interview out and Tweet their hearts out for you.
- You get a FREE e-book, The Skin of Water by G. S. Johnston on September 28 or 29th just for clicking on the link I provide you. All of your friends who click the link get a FREE The Skin of Water on e-book. make it easy for me, please by coming back to my blog for the link.
- Not an autho,r but a blogger? I will interview you. You get all of your friends to view that interview. Click the link on September 28 or 29 and you all get a Free e-book, The Skin of Water.
- Now, of course, I will have a little promo link and book cover for The Skin of Water on every interview.
- Just a middle school kid who wants to ask questions one on one with a new and up coming YA author? Hey, why not? This would be an honor for YA reader and a free promo for a NEW up and coming author. (I can not guarantee any author at the moment, but you sure can give me a list to see what author is game.) what YA author or more want to offer to answer a kids questions?
- I reserve the right to change the rules as I see fit and are subject to Mr Johnston’s wishes. Disclaimer: I, Malika Bourne, am not receiving any compensation for the Free sale of The Skin of Water. I am simply helping a friend launch a book. No money will be exchanged. this is simply a friend bartering with another friend.
- Please leave your information such as name and website in my comment section. I will get back to you ASAP with the interview questions.
- Please leave your name even if you do not have a website, so, we have an idea of how many e-books we might expect to out on September 28 or 29th. (Not mandatory, just a courtesy for Mr Johnston. He could run out of books. first come first serve though.)
- You may e-mail me on my personal e-mail with SUBJECT: Skin of Water at malikabourne2@gmail.com if you do not feel comfortable about leaving your information in my comment section. anything appearing as spam or not from an adult will be deleted at my discretion.
- The Skin of Water is an adult only book.
Coming next is an interview with G. S Johnston.
I am so excited. Are you excited? Leave your info in the box below. (I don’t have captcha ’cause I can’t read it.)
This is Malika Bourne the No Non-cents Nanna saying, “Make good choices.”
Meet Vampire Loving Geek From UK With Awesome Blog
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Interview with Vampire Loving Geek
…where one British 20-something shares his life and gets excited by all sorts of geeky things in the process.
 |
| Dan’s photo of Big Ben. He has more amazing pictures. |
Stop, Look Around, What is Important?
How many of us get so involved in what we are doing that we forget to take a break and breathe? I confess, I get obsessed with writing and marketing and not caring if I get paid, I love it. What ever it is that distracts you from the beauty around, just stop a moment and look around.
Tolstoy said it so perfectly in this quote.
“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Tolstoy
I did my looking around while the dog sniffed every bush and pine cone. I remembered some of my friends who I had not followed though in a timely manner on my promises.While I was riding the Grey Hound back and forth,some months back, I read, but could not write reviews. So, today, I am keeping my promise and wrote a review even with the darn computer crashing at its whim.
Reading books is so important to every one. I love historical romance. I can escape for a moment, and learn about history at the same time. What is your “Take a breath and get away with your MO, Method of Operation”?
I keep my promises, even if I am slow.
Below is the copy of my review of The Skin of Water by G. s. Johnston, a friend from goodreads.com.Please enjoy my review, then click the link to go view it on Amazon.com.
This review is from: The Skin of Water (Kindle Edition)
I was captivated from the beginning as I viewed the scenery through the young film maker’s lens. I love historical romance, but I confess that The skin of Water far exceeded my expectations. I was pulled into a part of WWII in Hungary, a country I knew little about.
Mr Johnston so gentlemanly touched the parts of my womanly senses so much the I “O_O_O_o and a-a-a-, sigh” with passion along with the two secret lovers. The only problem with the well written content was that I read it while riding 1,000 miles on a Grey Hound bus. When I made my nearly “orgasmic” sounds along with the characters, OOPS! other passengers turned back to see what I was doing. All I could do was confess, ” Good book. Really good Book!”
I hear that men are loving this book , too, maybe its is all the unexpected that appears in a world war, or maybe the romance. Ah, read The skin of Water. So-o-o-o good.
This is a copy of Malika Bourne’s the No Non-cents Nanna’s review on amazon.com. It is an adult book all the way, so take some time for yourself and enjoy an excellent book.
I write From My Heart
|
|
|
The baby has the croup. Sitting in a steaming bath room. |
There have been situations in my life when my emotion filled heart needed the tenacity to be the educated support in a crisis.
That first sentence simply means that I had taken classes on how to deal with emergencies.
Even if I could quote every line of information in a text book on how to know how to put out a fire with baking soda or pop a hot dog out of choking three year, it is all good and well. The interesting thing is that no one can teach the emotions you must keep in check during a time when everyone is hurting, except the teacher who has felt those emotions from his/her own heart and survived.
I write about extended families and keeping children safe.
I have a large vocabulary that the average person trying to absorb quickly could never understand.
I am an excellent speller, but you would never know because I am a lousy typist. I realized that proof reading didn’t do too much good good, because I guessed at the word. (I have visual problems.)Enough of that Malarkey that does not really matter.
I write from my heart that I learned from my own experiences. I have not always done every thing right, in fact, I have made plenty of mistakes and I am honest about it. To take it up another notch on honesty, I am old enough to qualify for Medicare; lots of years to learn from mistakes and experience adversity.
I have found that when a person relates that he/she has survived a milestone, the person going “through it” is then given some hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I open my heart in my own simple way when I teach one on one and when I write.
I guess you can say that I am a jack of all trades and master of an emotional heart.
I try not to ever say, “You should”, or “You are doing it all wrong.” I reveal my weight and age but i never care about my IQ. I just want those in need to know that there is someone out there in cyberspace that can use a little anecdote that relates to issue about extended families.
Because of my style, a few months back, I received a surprising E-mail from an editor inviting my to be a contributor of a new on-line magazine. I am honored to say that I am the writer for “Listen to Grandma” in Every Little thing 306 and Beyond.
Please check it out and give your feed back. (My favorite article are the ones the Dads write.)
Check out the latest issue of ELT!Birth & Beyond Magazine.Its Free & its fab!
http://www.calameo.com/read/0004301573f07969b4dc7
This is Malika Bourne the No Non-cents Nanna saying, “Make good choice.”
My Favorite Mis-quote
When I was 9 or 10 I loved reading all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. In Little Town on the Prairie. Laura had mis-quoted Horace Mann. I did not know who wrote the quote nor did I care it was mis-quoted, but I was so inspired by her version.I learned to not waste time. What is your inspiration?
Here is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s version of Horace Manna’s words.
Lost between sunrise and sunset
One golden hour
Set with 60 diamond Minutes
No reward is offered for it is gone forever.
I I
