The lead paint scare...

Tonight our kitchen door swung shut over a piece of plastic (from Brooks' tupperware drawer) and chipped a big piece of paint onto the carpet.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize this fact until it was too late. My first clue that something was wrong was when Brooks crawled over to where I was working on supper by the sink and he started gagging and vomiting. After clearing his mouth and discovering the wayward paint chips still in his mouth, I saw where the paint had come from and almost passed out. It was a huge hole in a very old painted surface, chipped all the way to the wood. My heart stopped with the fear of the dreaded "lead paint".

The general terror around lead paint poisoning is perhaps like the idea of drinking while pregnant - all I know is that it's dangerous, no one knows how much is too much, and it's best to avoid it all together. It could HURT_YOUR_CHILD!!

I called Eric and he called our landlord ... has the building ever been tested for lead paint? "I don't know but I'm sure it's been freshly painted every 2-3 years by whatever is sold in the shops, and I'm SURE that's safe..." Um, not so helpful. We're talking about a 1/4 inch thick old paint chip maybe dating back to before you were born.

We checked with our UK doctor's office next... They inspired little confidence. "A what-kind-of-chip, dear? I don't understand your question." ... "Oh, your baby has swallowed some dried paint? Well, I'm sure he'll be fine. Is he done choking now?"

Not feeling entirely satisfied, Eric contacted the US poison control center... If the paint specimen was larger than a man's thumb nail, then you should go to the nearest ER, being sure to take a piece of the paint chip with you. Have them run all sorts of chemical tests on the paint and give your child an x-ray or scan to determine how much he actually swallowed and then if the lab tests come back positive for lead, they can flush his system so that the lead isn't ingested. But note, it's very important that you act quickly. You should go now."

Geez!

So then I called the NHS Direct. They'd been very helpful when Eric was sick before Italy. Technical difficulties marred our customer service experience, but after four phone call worth of silly questions - "is your child blue around the face? does your child have a rash? does he have difficulty breathing?" they were able to say with some certainty that Brooks would *probably* be fine. (You did rinse his mouth out with water, right?!) They felt that there was very little that we had to do about the situation in the next 20 minutes. However, if he started to have trouble breathing at any point, or if he experienced any abdominal pain (and how would we know this?!), or if his condition changed at all, then we should call back and give them an update...

ARGH!

So, what does being a "good mother" in this situation mean!?!? Do I rush him to the hospital or do I rinse out his mouth with water and slap him on the back and call it good? I don't know!

In the end we decided to let it go. Brooks seems perfectly fine now and I'm guessing that thousands of children have swallowed worse and survived. Eric is convinced we did the right thing. For myself, I will just be very happy when he's safe in his own bed tonight, asleep, and away from the big bad paint chips.

I guess this equates to letting Brooks ride in a Roman taxi without his car seat... But somehow watching him get sick with something foreign in his mouth made this feel much much worse.

Here's praying for a really good night of sleep tonight.