Thursday
Mar302006
My Life as a Mom: Penny Poop Patrol
Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 12:30PM
"Mom. Dad. Ate a penny."
"WHAT?! Who? YOU? WHY?!"
This is not supposed to be happening at bedtime on a quiet Sunday evening after a long weekend. Sunday after 9:00 p.m. is supposed to be, finally, Adult Time! And yet, there he was, our adorable five-year-old, with a slightly concerned, yet, "Gee, I don't know how that could have happened" demeanor...and here we go!
#1 - Breathing? Check--
#2 - Internet 911 Research? Check--
#3 - Assessment? Non-emergency status: It will pass.
#4 - Tuck the little blonde monster back into bed? Check--
4:00 a.m. (whispering in my face): "Mom. My tummy hurts...Ow. Ow. Ow."
It takes me a minute, but then I'm awake as he climbs into the bed, which is not unusual, yet rarely comfortable for the previous occupants as he spreads out to take over as much real estate as possible.
"Ow. Ow. Ow...."
"Where's the penny, Tiger? Can you feel it?"
"Here--" pointing to a spot about two inches above his belly button.
"Should we take him to the Emergency Room?"
Dad is awake now.
Assessment: He's not in great distress, despite the persistent "Ow. Ow. Ow."
No tears, he's not all clenched up, breathing is fine, no temperature.
Our standing ER policy: If there is no blood, no protruding bones or unattached body parts, no seizures, and Mom's Intuition is not screaming bloody hell...it is best to avoid the inner city Emergency Room trauma and get through it at home until the doctor's office opens. But it's still good to have the Emergency Nurse on-call through our pediatrician's office. It's not an easy task to get through the voicemail system, encouraging us to call 911 all along the way, but we manage, and get a call back within half an hour.
I went through the assessment of the situation with the Nurse, and the pros and cons of various courses of action. Standard procedure is to err on the side of caution. The recommendation was to watch his breathing (concern the penny might be caught up in the esophagus, but we were all pretty sure it had already dropped, which was causing the tummy discomfort), and take him into the doctor's office first thing so they could most likely send him over to the hospital for an outpatient x-ray...not that there is really anything they could do.
Swallowed foreign objects, especially pennies, are apparently a very common occurrence in young children and household pets. I don't know how we managed to get through 15 years -- 3 children and 3 dogs -- without ever having a penny crisis. Pennies usually pass, but it could take a couple of days to 10 days or more.
If we spent the whole next day bouncing between the doctor's office, the hospital, the x-ray lab, and back, waiting it out and spending a couple of hundred dollars by the end of the day, we'd be able to begin tracking that penny's progress...until he pooped it out. This is something to look forward to at 5:00 a.m. on a Monday. Not. We gave him some Motrin, and we all went back to sleep.
Thus began the 48-hour Penny Poop Patrol, an odyssey of patience, requiring a sense of humor and a strong stomach. After further Internet research, we were somewhat more concerned about the penny. A 1998 study on just this subject from Duke University indicates that there is some cause for concern if a child (or pet) swallows a penny, especially a penny manufactured after 1982:
"When a child swallows a penny, it can react with stomach acid to create a toxic mixture as corrosive as car battery acid, leading to severe stomach inflammation and even ulcers, physicians at Duke University Medical Center have discovered..." http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=467
Pennies minted before 1982 were 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. Pennies minted after 1982 (cheaper pennies!) are nearly all zinc, with a thin copper plating. The zinc in the coins can react with stomach acid to form hydrogen gas and zinc chloride -- a reaction similar to the chemical process that occurs in car batteries -- and can erode the stomach lining, causing an ulcer.
Great. I had horrible visions of a five-year-old with ulcers, or an old man later in life blaming me for prostate problems -- all because of a penny caught in the poop-chute. It's always something.
I let Tiger sleep in, and kept him home from school on Monday. His older brother and sister were only too happy to inform the bus driver, and probably everybody else during the day, that Tiger had swallowed a penny and Mom was on "poop patrol" waiting for it to come out...
Tiger had a great day at home. I gave him non-acidic, yet bran- and fiber-rich foods and drinks to protect his tummy and move that penny on out as quickly as possible. Nothing.
I was ready to keep him home again Tuesday, and move in more aggressively with prune juice and glycerin suppositories (if need be), but apparently he'd decided he'd had enough and was ready to go back to school. He calmly came out of the bathroom all dressed and ready to go in time for the bus. He handed me a wad of toilet paper with a little surprise inside and ran for the bus. Alas, the small specimen did not contain the penny, but I was pretty sure he'd be all right. (I called the nurse at school and while I stopped short of asking her to monitor Tiger's bowel movements or send anything of that nature home, I knew she would keep an eye on him and make sure he was okay.)
He came home Tuesday afternoon, happy as could be, feeling fine. He hadn't pooped at school (rather proud of himself), so we still had the opportunity to find that penny. Yay.
You know what? After 3 kids and 3 dogs, poop really doesn't bother me so much anymore. It's just a part of life, and I am used to picking it up, cleaning it off, flushing it down when somebody forgets. Still, I'm very happy to be past the potty-training and diaper mess stage of our lives. I am not used to eagerly awaiting the arrival of a bowel movement and moving in with latex gloves, a plastic fork, and a gallon-sized, double-durable zip-lock bag, on a scavenger hunt for a partly-digested penny. (Gross, yes, but it's a simple, yet effective plan for analyzing, and it's all I had to work with!)
Long story short: I only had to "analyze" three samples. The penny passed Wednesday afternoon. All is right in the world. No, I did not clean the penny off and put it in the scrapbook -- Tiger's the third child. He doesn't even have a scrapbook.
Find a penny, pick it up;
All the day, you'll have good luck!
"WHAT?! Who? YOU? WHY?!"
This is not supposed to be happening at bedtime on a quiet Sunday evening after a long weekend. Sunday after 9:00 p.m. is supposed to be, finally, Adult Time! And yet, there he was, our adorable five-year-old, with a slightly concerned, yet, "Gee, I don't know how that could have happened" demeanor...and here we go!
#1 - Breathing? Check--
#2 - Internet 911 Research? Check--
#3 - Assessment? Non-emergency status: It will pass.
#4 - Tuck the little blonde monster back into bed? Check--
4:00 a.m. (whispering in my face): "Mom. My tummy hurts...Ow. Ow. Ow."
It takes me a minute, but then I'm awake as he climbs into the bed, which is not unusual, yet rarely comfortable for the previous occupants as he spreads out to take over as much real estate as possible.
"Ow. Ow. Ow...."
"Where's the penny, Tiger? Can you feel it?"
"Here--" pointing to a spot about two inches above his belly button.
"Should we take him to the Emergency Room?"
Dad is awake now.
Assessment: He's not in great distress, despite the persistent "Ow. Ow. Ow."
No tears, he's not all clenched up, breathing is fine, no temperature.
Our standing ER policy: If there is no blood, no protruding bones or unattached body parts, no seizures, and Mom's Intuition is not screaming bloody hell...it is best to avoid the inner city Emergency Room trauma and get through it at home until the doctor's office opens. But it's still good to have the Emergency Nurse on-call through our pediatrician's office. It's not an easy task to get through the voicemail system, encouraging us to call 911 all along the way, but we manage, and get a call back within half an hour.
I went through the assessment of the situation with the Nurse, and the pros and cons of various courses of action. Standard procedure is to err on the side of caution. The recommendation was to watch his breathing (concern the penny might be caught up in the esophagus, but we were all pretty sure it had already dropped, which was causing the tummy discomfort), and take him into the doctor's office first thing so they could most likely send him over to the hospital for an outpatient x-ray...not that there is really anything they could do.
Swallowed foreign objects, especially pennies, are apparently a very common occurrence in young children and household pets. I don't know how we managed to get through 15 years -- 3 children and 3 dogs -- without ever having a penny crisis. Pennies usually pass, but it could take a couple of days to 10 days or more.
If we spent the whole next day bouncing between the doctor's office, the hospital, the x-ray lab, and back, waiting it out and spending a couple of hundred dollars by the end of the day, we'd be able to begin tracking that penny's progress...until he pooped it out. This is something to look forward to at 5:00 a.m. on a Monday. Not. We gave him some Motrin, and we all went back to sleep.
Thus began the 48-hour Penny Poop Patrol, an odyssey of patience, requiring a sense of humor and a strong stomach. After further Internet research, we were somewhat more concerned about the penny. A 1998 study on just this subject from Duke University indicates that there is some cause for concern if a child (or pet) swallows a penny, especially a penny manufactured after 1982:
"When a child swallows a penny, it can react with stomach acid to create a toxic mixture as corrosive as car battery acid, leading to severe stomach inflammation and even ulcers, physicians at Duke University Medical Center have discovered..." http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=467
Pennies minted before 1982 were 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. Pennies minted after 1982 (cheaper pennies!) are nearly all zinc, with a thin copper plating. The zinc in the coins can react with stomach acid to form hydrogen gas and zinc chloride -- a reaction similar to the chemical process that occurs in car batteries -- and can erode the stomach lining, causing an ulcer.
Great. I had horrible visions of a five-year-old with ulcers, or an old man later in life blaming me for prostate problems -- all because of a penny caught in the poop-chute. It's always something.
I let Tiger sleep in, and kept him home from school on Monday. His older brother and sister were only too happy to inform the bus driver, and probably everybody else during the day, that Tiger had swallowed a penny and Mom was on "poop patrol" waiting for it to come out...
Tiger had a great day at home. I gave him non-acidic, yet bran- and fiber-rich foods and drinks to protect his tummy and move that penny on out as quickly as possible. Nothing.
I was ready to keep him home again Tuesday, and move in more aggressively with prune juice and glycerin suppositories (if need be), but apparently he'd decided he'd had enough and was ready to go back to school. He calmly came out of the bathroom all dressed and ready to go in time for the bus. He handed me a wad of toilet paper with a little surprise inside and ran for the bus. Alas, the small specimen did not contain the penny, but I was pretty sure he'd be all right. (I called the nurse at school and while I stopped short of asking her to monitor Tiger's bowel movements or send anything of that nature home, I knew she would keep an eye on him and make sure he was okay.)
He came home Tuesday afternoon, happy as could be, feeling fine. He hadn't pooped at school (rather proud of himself), so we still had the opportunity to find that penny. Yay.
You know what? After 3 kids and 3 dogs, poop really doesn't bother me so much anymore. It's just a part of life, and I am used to picking it up, cleaning it off, flushing it down when somebody forgets. Still, I'm very happy to be past the potty-training and diaper mess stage of our lives. I am not used to eagerly awaiting the arrival of a bowel movement and moving in with latex gloves, a plastic fork, and a gallon-sized, double-durable zip-lock bag, on a scavenger hunt for a partly-digested penny. (Gross, yes, but it's a simple, yet effective plan for analyzing, and it's all I had to work with!)
Long story short: I only had to "analyze" three samples. The penny passed Wednesday afternoon. All is right in the world. No, I did not clean the penny off and put it in the scrapbook -- Tiger's the third child. He doesn't even have a scrapbook.
Find a penny, pick it up;
All the day, you'll have good luck!