There was a little boy who swallowed...a shoe?

Warning:  The following story, while humorous, is kind of gross.  Okay, really gross.  Not for the faint of heart.  Proceed with caution.  But yeah, it's funny, too.

A few weeks ago, I was downstairs with the kids eating breakfast, about to get ready to go to church.  I had put Thomas in his Aerosaucer to play around while we ate.  The saucer was next to the piano bench.  I checked the tray portion of the saucer like I always do to make sure that only Thomas’ toys were there and that the kids hadn’t put anything tiny or dangerous in it.  It was all okay.  Well, I had just finished up my cereal when I heard Thomas making these gagging sounds like he was choking.  I jumped up and went over to him to pick him up.  He was definitely making choking noises, but I was confused, because I hadn’t given him anything to eat, and there had only been his toys on the saucer – what in the world could he have been choking on?  

I patted him on the back a few times, but he kept gagging.  I knew that something was in his mouth, and was trying to look in and see, but he kept pulling away and gagging, and each time I got a good look in his mouth, all I could see was his tongue pulled up and back, obstructing my view of his throat.  The whole thing happened in a just a few seconds, but they were some of the longest seconds of my life because my 8 month old baby was choking on who knows what, it was not coming up, and I was starting to freak out.  Was it a piece of food?  A coin he found somewhere? 

I panicked and did something you are not supposed to do.  I just stuck my finger right in there and tried to feel for something (here's a First Aid tip for you:  you are never supposed to do a finger sweep in a person's mouth unless you can actually see something because there is a risk that you can push the object further in, thus further obstructing the airway and causing further harm).  Anyhow, just as I did this, I felt something on the tip of my finger – something sort of firm and tiny – and I felt my finger push it right down his throat. 

Oh. my. gosh.  “What the heck was that?!”, I yelled out loud in a panic.  What the heck did I just push down his throat?  Was it food?  Plastic?  Metal?  I had no idea, and now I would never know.  My mind was racing as I tried to figure out what he had just swallowed and what to do next.  I asked the kids if they had given him anything and they said they hadn’t. 

Meanwhile, I just kept looking in his mouth (as if somehow the answer would magically appear if I stared there long enough), and lo and behold, I saw something small and yellow in between his front bottom teeth and his lip.  I pulled it out – a tiny yellow Polly Pocket sized doll shoe – a high heel, to be exact.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed for the first time that he was holding a tiny Belle doll (again, the size of a Polly Pocket doll).  He was holding it up with the feet up, and sure enough, both shoes were missing.  One in my hand, and the other…presumably on it’s way down south inside my baby.  Well, at least I knew now what he had swallowed, right?!  Great. 

Here's a picture of the little troublemaker.  And oh my gosh, that is some bad skin - put some lotion on, girl!

A here is a shot of it next to a penny to give you an idea of how tiny it is

 
I realized at that moment that while I had checked his saucer to make sure it was safe, I hadn’t thought to check the piano bench that was clearly in his reach.  Dumb.  Really dumb.  Sigh.  Well, I went upstairs to tell Lou, still feeling rattled from the scary choking experience.  He kind of laughed and said that it was no big deal, that it would just pass through his system and end up in his diaper.  Meanwhile, Josephine was crying in the hallway, feeling massive guilt about “hurting Tommy” – her words, not mine.  I told her that we knew that it was a mistake and that she would just be more careful next time.  She walked away whimpering and then started to bemoan the loss of her shoe.  Lou shouted from the bathroom – “Don’t worry, Josephine – you’ll get it back in a few days when Tommy poops it out!”, and he chuckled as he finished the sentence.  You should have seen the look on Josephine’s face – she was not amused.

Well, I called the pediatrician’s office the next day just to be sure that there was nothing else we should be doing.  The nurse there told me that we just had to wait it out, but that we should be checking all his diapers so that we could confirm that it had passed and was not stuck.  I kind of figured that, and was glad to hear from her that this was really no big deal and that Tommy would be just fine. 

But let me tell you something that I would NEVER again want to do in my life.  Search through mounds (yes, mounds) of poop with a popsicle stick trying to find a tiny doll shoe that just so happens to be the exact same color as your son’s poop, making it even harder to see, forcing you to look that much harder to make sure that you don’t miss it.  Now, of course this had to happen after he already started solids so that his poop was thicker (which again, meant more searching) and way stinkier.  And do you know what makes poop smell even worse?!  Being six inches from it, digging around in it with a popsicle stick.  Disgusting.  And of course, my son, who nowadays usually only poops every other day, starting pooping every day during this time period.  In fact, for a few days he pooped 4-5 times a day just so that I could experience the poop excavation as much as humanely possible.  What the heck?!!  It was so gross. 

The nurse had told me that it could take up to 7-10 days to pass.  On day 5, I was so grossed out by all the diaper diving that I was ready to throw up.  We got to day seven and still no shoe.  I was starting to panic.

Well, wouldn't you know it - on the morning of day 9, Josephine comes into our bedroom and casually says “Oh, Mom, I found my other doll shoe”  “What are you talking about?”, I asked.  “My yellow high heel for Belle, I found it”  I told her that she had just found the one that was left, and reminded her that Thomas had swallowed the other one.  “No, Mommy, I found the other one in my drawer.  I have two now”  “WHAT?!”, I yelled.  “Bring them both here – let me see!”.  She disappeared to her room and returned with both tiny shoes.  I sat and stared at them in disbelief.  I just kept saying “This is impossible.  This is impossible.  How are they both here?  I know he swallowed one.  I felt my finger push it down his throat!”  Lou figured that Thomas must have quietly gagged it back up when I wasn’t looking or something.  I guess that could be it.  Maybe that’s the one I found in between his lip and teeth, and maybe the second one was never even on the doll in the first place (totally possible when it comes to my kids).  Really weird. 

Part of me was relieved that he had never swallowed it in the first place and that I could stop searching through poop, but part of me was REALLY ticked that I had gone through over 12 poopy diapers at this point for no reason at all.  Because c'mon - seriously?  She couldn't have discovered the shoe the next day?  It had to be NINE DAYS later?!!  So many diapers...So gross.  Ugh - makes me gag just to think about it.

Sigh.  What can I say?  Mama said there'd be days like this.

Oh, and here's a few recent pictures of the man himself, 8 1/2 months old.  

Because a nasal aspirator is totally an acceptable toy

Aw - he likes the Friend magazine as much as his sisters. ;)

Silly boy

He is obsessed with Daisy.  Loves petting and touching her all the time, and she's thankfully very patient with him.

Bright eyes!