My son eats wood AND goes to the ER all in the same day

Friday, March 7, 2008.
Who would of thought that something this cute could do this much damage?









So I went to go and get the brothers up from their nap this afternoon and found that Aidan had taken a chunk out of his crib and ate it. Why would I think that he ate it? Because the amount of wood splinters on the floor were no where near adding up to the amount of wood that was missing. He was happy so I didn't think anything of it. I took them downstairs and starting changing butts. I had just finished changing Aidan and was starting to change Isaac when Aidan proceeded to puke up wood and blood. Lovely. I cleaned it up - in my best "trying not to freak" mentality and called his pediatrician. While waiting for her to call me back - I called David at work to tell him what was going on. He was way busy and there was no way that he could leave at that point. The Ped beeped in - she said to head straight to the ER of one of the children's hospitals in St. Louis. He could have aspirated some wood or because of the blood he could have some stuck somewhere. I then lost it and started crying. Aidan is normally a fireball, but now he is just sitting on my lap and will not let me put him down. I called David to tell him what we need to do - He said that he doesn't think that we need to do that - and that he has no way of leaving work to take him. He thinks that we just need to watch him and see how he does - if he gets worse we can take him in when he gets off work. I don't have a car - so I really couldn't argue with him. Well not 2 minutes after I hung up from David - Aidan pukes again - more blood and more wood. I called David and told him that he would be coming home from work right now or I was calling 911. At that point Sherri called us (she is the awesome woman that is arranging all of our childcare) I pretty much lost it on the phone. She was at my house in 2 minutes. She brought her daughters and her niece too. We then ended up deciding that Sherri would take me and Aidan to the ER and the other girls would stay and watch the other boys. So Sherri, Aidan, Cori (her oldest), and I all head to the ER.

When we got there they checked him over for signs of distress. He had a little bit of tenderness in his tummy but that was really it. Found out that wood doesn't show up on an x-ray so that was out of the question. We just needed to wait and see. We were there for close to 3 hours and he ate a Popsicle. The Dr. seemed to think that he threw up all of the wood that he ate and
there was really nothing more that we could do. The stomach acid will help to soften - not break down - any remaining wood and he should pass it normally. We were told to watch him for the next couple of days and then bring him back if he starts showing any signs of distress.

So now we are left with the question - How do we keep him from eating his crib??
Just in case you are wondering - yes I do feed my kids 3 meals a day and proper snacks :)