Dr. Zibners.com

How to know if your child's illness or injury is really an emergency

articles

Party Pooper

It dawned on me after my last post that some of you might not understand why I think balloon animals are in the same category as air rifles when it comes to kids’ health and safety. Well, I’ll be happy to explain. No, it’s isn’t because you would rather shoot yourself in the eye than try to twist a slippery piece of latex into a flamingo. And no, it’s also not because you want to shoot the kid who pops a balloon and scares the life out of you at the park. (OK, I wouldn’t seriously want to harm a child for being his developmentally appropriate, naturally exuberant self, but it takes years off my life.) Anyway, it’s for another reason. But rather than lecture you, I’ll tell you a story.

A couple weeks back we took the girls to lunch. Now that they eat everything (and I am including liverwurst—with a spoon!—at that!), my husband and I take great delight in seeing what they think of our Saturday brunches. We chose a restaurant that is known for being particularly child-friendly and picked a nice spot where our stroller wouldn’t obstruct the exit. (Because I’m fire conscious as well). A few minutes after we were seated, the manager came by. “Oh, what cute little girls! Can I get you some balloons?” she asked, winking at me and getting ready to be thanked profusely.

“Did you know that latex balloons are one of the top ten fatal choking hazards for young children?” I exclaimed in horror, also getting ready to be praised for being both safety-conscious and informative.

Needless to say, the manager looked at me like I had just stolen a bag of candy from one of the 25 kids in the joint, stepping on another 3 while returning to my seat. Apparently she didn’t want to know that her restaurant was passing out potentially lethal playthings to their customers. And obviously I am the biggest party pooper to ever live.

Well, that may be true. But until my children understand that you don’t bite or suck on a balloon, lest one of their very sharp little teeth cause it to pop and send a piece of latex deep into their airway where I can’t get to it, they can settle for a box of crayons. Sorry girls. Mommy’s mean.

p.s. Friends! I have improved my technology and you can now “Follow” me more easily with links to Twitter, Facebook and Google. If you do that, I promise to work hard at improved posts, better tweeting and all around availability. Thank you so much for all the support thus far.

Dr. Lara Zibners, Jan 20, 2011

Find more articles like this one:

• Topic:

• Keywords:

Comments

Discuss this article.

No Comments yet.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.