What To Do If Your Child Swallows A Penny

Oh dear.

I am actually surprised we've made it this far with four kids and the oldest being eight- and none of them has swallowed something not meant to be swallowed. Until Monday.

The boys had just been put to bed and I heard a little coughing from Gray. Soon he was out of his bed asking for some water because his throat hurt a little because a penny went down into my tummy, Mommy.

I got all shaky and gave him a cup of water, quizzing him- are you sure? Was it only a penny? How many? Just one. Okay. Only one? Only one. Okay.

I almost twittered about it but wasn't sure I was up for the judgment or being scared into rushing to the ER. So like most good parents (nervous laugh heheheh), I went straight to Google. (There's actually a pretty good chance that someone reading this right now found me by googling the same thing. Hi!)

It was a relief to find that this is quite common (I even think I swallowed a coin when I was little. My Uncle Randy swallowed a HAT PIN when he was little and my Mom ate glass, or drank gasoline, or both.)

I even came upon an old blogging acquaintance's post about this very thing. And it made me feel much better. Further googling and scouring of doctor's suggestions on the matter left me eager for a little bit of a treasure hunt in Gray's pull-up for days to come. (Oh, and yes he's still in pull-ups but that's for another post.)

Of course I watched his every movement and facial expression and skin color closely and made sure he didn't show any signs of acting stranger than he already does. The next couple days he was fine and went fine with no signs of the penny. I thought that if within four or five days it hadn't come out that I would take him to the doctor, just in case.

On Thursday I was getting anxious about it and remembered a hilarious story some friends told me about Fiber One bars and what they have been known do to the digestive system... so for one last try I bought a box.

We got home and I gave him the yummy treat- he didn't need much convincing because it was chocolate- and he ate it up.

Later that day I smelled its success and was excited to see the results. I'll spare you the unpleasant details but let's just say that we hit the jackpot. There was the penny. Right next to ANOTHER PENNY.

Those Fiber One Bars really paid off.

We're in the trenches of getting a very strong-willed child to go on the potty consistently and the past few days he's now even more excited to go on the potty because every time he thinks he'll find more pennies!

Those Fiber One Bars are really paying off...


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