My Lesson on Bath Water

Just when you think things may perhaps be leveling out…the unexpected happens AGAIN!

I ‘never’ let Kobe sit in the tub with Kierra at bath time.  I use our shower stall, and  there is very little extra space for a one year old who LOVES baths and bubbles.

Friday morning, I relented and reassured myself that it would keep him from picking up the shampoo bottle and soap bottle and towel and washcloth and generally leaning over and around and on me and getting in the way , so i let him sit in the back of the shower and even gave a healthy squirt of bubbles to the water when he begged.

I had just gotten Kierra nicely situated and was wetting the washcloth, when to my stupefied horror, i saw her brother with a cup of water moving toward her head and stared as he DUMPED it squarely onto her face!

And it all happened so fast and yet, the images are frozen in slow motion in my mind.

Her little white teeth, bright against her red lips. her tilted back head and closed eyes as she relaxed in warm water.

And then, Kobe’s totally innocent expression as he emptied the cup of water onto that sweet upturned face.  Dear child. He was only trying to wash her hair like he has seen me do so many times.

She choked and sputtered and gagged and i tried to sit her up, but she only slipped and slid and i wanted to pound her back, but she was an eel out of control. Poor poor pumpkin!

I felt like calling the Dr. immediately with my big concern for aspiration, but felt really foolish and told myself that it was most likely not enough water to harm her. Don’t all kids drink bath water sometime in life?

All weekend I watched her closely and couldn’t decide if I was imagining symptoms of aspiration or not.

Today, she had a routine appointment and I was SO thankful! She had a slight fever and was breathing extremely rapidly. Respiratory was around 60 a minute! That was over twice as fast as ‘normal’.  There was a slight crackle in her upper lung. The Dr. suspected it was the beginning of a pneumonia most likely caused by bacteria in the water she aspirated. He said even soapy water could cause this. Now she’s on antibiotic again, and we need to watch her respiratory closely over the next 48 hours.

She is resting well right now, and her respiratory is down to around 40, Praise the Lord!

Lesson learned~ Single child bathing ONLY with Kierra!! 🙂

If you would be so kind to breathe a prayer for her recovery, we would be so obliged!

 

P.S. How he LOVES her ! ❤