OMG !! What should I do?

[Centura]

One of the kids obviously left half a sandwich with ham and salad dressing in the playroom yesterday morning, my 21 month old boy just found it and ate of it! What should I do? Just hope he wont get sick? Try to make him puke? Go to the ER? It was commercial salad dressing, like miracle whip, and natural ham

[~Boudicca~]

There's nothing really you can do. Just watch him in case he gets sick. I don't think the ER would do anything for ingesting a day-old sandwich.

[Annie Mac]

What was the temp in the room? You know, it's probably OK, especially if it was just room temp or lower. Ham is preserved, even natural ham, via salt and smoke, and commercial dressing has plenty of preservatives in it. I might be a little more worried if it was mayo-based and in direct sunlight for hours though. Do you have a nurse line you can call?

[laohaire]

I think he'll be fine.

Worst case is he gets pukey or has the runs. His body can take care of that ham sandwich either way. It will detect whether it's problematic and eject it as quickly as necessary (either the quickest way: up - or the next quickest way: down with a lot of runs).

I'd only seek medical attention for the usual reasons - extremely high fever, child is listless or not himself, etc.

[Centura]

Room temp here is about 85F... its miserably hot! And been so for days... I have no clue if it was exposed to sun or not, obviously it was somewhere where I didn't see it so I dunno... Im usually very careful to make sure they do NOT leave food anywhere around the house, not so much for this reason, but we get ant invasions easily.... I guess its some kind of mayo base, "sighs", I guess your all right though, wait and see...

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

The good news is that commercial salad dressing, and mayo for that matter, is actually quite safe. The Ph is wrong for most food-borne pathogens. Homemade mayo is awful and that is where all of the "mayo goes bad" comes from. Currently, almost all food-borne illnesses blamed on the potato salad or something else with mayo really it wasn't the mayo at all -- it was something else in the dish.

Ham is better than many other meats because of the smoke and salt. Again, it doesn't have a very hospitable Ph or moisture content to grow many of the bacteria.

In your shoes, I would monitor your child for the next week -- some pathogens take up to 7 days to get to dangerous levels. If you see fever, vomiting etc. then you will want to take him the to the doctor. But chances are he is probably going to be fine.

In the "it could have been worse" spirit -- my toddler once found a dead mouse in a trap and put the tail in her mouth. YUCK!!!!!!! She was fine though. So yes, there is always a risk, but for the most part our bodies are pretty well equipt to take care of themselves.

Of course, if your child has underlying health issues that would effect his immune system then you might want to check with his doctor right away.

[Caneel]

I will trade you a day old ham sandwich for cat sh*t any day.....toddlers, go figure!

[nextcommercial]

Originally Posted by Evan&Anna's_Mom

The good news is that commercial salad dressing, and mayo for that matter, is actually quite safe. .

My aunts in Tennesee leave the mayo and miracle whip in the pantry. It never goes in the fridge, and it's apparently been fine.

I wouldn't worry. Give it a few hours to see if the ham makes him sick.

[Annie Mac]

How's your little one doing today? When my daughter was around 18 months or so, we had a bowl of fruit on the table. Good fruit. Lots of it. She rummaged around in it, and found the one old moldy orange on the bottom and ate it, peel and all. She didn't even get sick.

[waiting2bemommy]

ds ate a live spider when he was about 8 or 9 months old & a super fast crawler...he got it before I could. Ew. He's still alive with no apparent digestive problems. *I* puked though....

[yarngoddess]

Wondering if kiddo got sick from this? It's always som amazing how strong our stomach's can be for some things...and weak with others. Hope your LO is fine

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Now I know my husbands gut and your babies gut are two different things, but let me share a story with you.

I used to pack a lunch for my husband. On days I knew it was going to be hot, I would pack him things that would keep in the heat of his van, like PBJ and pretzels or the like. One MONDAY, I asked him if he had a chance to eat lunch that day, as I knew they were busy. It was super hot after a major cooling trend the week before. He said yes, but it was tough as it was so hot, his TURKEY sandwich was a bit warm, so he just held his breath and wolfed it down, since he knew if he didn’t eat it, he would hear it from me later. (I HATE wasting food!)

TURKEY SANDWICH!?!?!?!?! I didn’t pack you a turkey sandwich!!! I packed you PBJ since I knew it was going to be near 90 today! He says, well it was turkey in the bag, with cheese. UMMM, That is what I packed you LAST FRIDAY!!!!! You mean to tell me you ate a sanwhich that had been sitting in your truck ALL WEEKEND in 85-90 degree heat?!?!?!? EWWWWWWWWWWWW He goes to his truck, sure enough, there is the bag (plastic grocery, so they always look the same) with the PBJ sandwhich in it. He turned GREEN. But not cuz he was sick, just from the thought of what he had done to himself.

That was 7 years ago I think. Hes just fine.

[Mountaingirl79]

Have to ditto the previous poster.
My Dh has done the same thing. LOL
My boys will too if given half the chance. LOL I wouldn't worry about it unless he starts vomiting. :-)

[rightkindofme]

Don't sweat it. I've totally done stuff like that.

[ASusan]

Originally Posted by Caneel

I will trade you a day old ham sandwich for cat sh*t any day.....toddlers, go figure!