A Horrible Day

Today Nathan's daycare teacher gave him 2-3oz of milk. Yes, he is very allergic to milk!!

After my lunch, I checked my cell phone (that was on vibrate) and I had 12 missed calls, daycare, my husband, my parents and my step sister. My heart sank, I knew something was terribly wrong. I called my husband and he tells me that he is on his way to daycare, they gave Nathan milk and he is having an allergic reaction!! I panicked and drove as fast as I could to daycare. My husband had arrived there first and talked to the center's director. She said "the teacher gave Nathan milk and he got sick, she then tried to give him his Epi Pen and she stabbed her thumb instead of Nathan's thigh, they tried to call us but couldn't get a hold of us, so they called my parents who are the emergency contacts and asked what to do?" Daycare then gave Nathan Benadryl and they called 911.

Nathan had been throwing up, gagging, spitting and he looked awful. He entire body was red, he looked like he was sunburned, even his ears were beat red. He had hives and welts and his hands looked swollen. He was crying and just wanted me to hold him. If his throat and tongue would have started to swell, he could have died.

His teacher was in the back, I saw her come out of the restroom in tears, I knew she felt bad, but I couldn't understand why or how it happened? A couple of weeks ago she told me she had a child that couldn't have milk, so how could she be so careless with my child, was she not thinking? She never came to talk to me, which was good because I really didn't want to face her.

It seemed like it was taking forever for 911 to come. Finally, the firetruck arrived then the paramedics. They took Nathan in the back of the paramedics, you should always have a child check out after an allergic reaction, in case of breathing problems. Luckily, this time he was breathing fine, it affected his intestinal tract and his skin. The EMT told us that Nathan was stable but needed to be checked out by a Doctor. We could go to the hospital or his pediatrician. We really liked the EMT's they were really nice guys and handled Nathan with such care. We decided to go to his pediatrician thinking it would be cheaper (not thinking that we won't be paying a single bill - daycare will be).

As we were ready to leave the daycare, the director kept telling me she was "so sorry" and said "she would understand if Nathan didn't come back." I just wanted her to go away, I didn't want to talk about it.

I called the pediatrician on the way and told them our situation. We got to see our Doctor and explained what happened at daycare she was angry about the way that daycare handled everything and the lack of training for a center. She examined Nathan and checked his oxygen level. She said he was one big hive and by him throwing up it was his body's way of rejecting the milk. She said to expect diarrhea next, lovely. She prescribed a steroid for him to help with any breathing problems and his red skin and a refill of his Epi-Pen. She even gave him a dose of the steroid right at the office.

We dropped off the prescriptions at the pharmacy to be filled and headed home.

Nathan said he was hungry but only ate a little, by this time it was 3:00pm. He has not had a nap, so around 4:00pm, I laid him down. His skin looked pretty good by now. I was emotionally drained and just needed to relax but I washed his clothes and made a few phone calls.

Nathan got up at 5:00pm and seemed fine, he played and acted normal. He told me he was hungry and eat some dinner. While he was eating he was telling me he choked, he was trying to tell me about his milk incident at daycare today, it broke my heart. I then gave him a bath and covered his whole body in a cortisone.

The director called from daycare and left a message on my phone stating that she wanted to know how Nathan is doing, apologizes again, hopes they will see Nathan again. She also reported the incident to their Risk Management who are going to send me some forms to complete and they will pay our medical bills from today. What about our missed work, what about Nathan's tuition for today? Are they going to pay for that? I didn't call her back.

A few hours later I get a call from the Allergist at Children's Hospital, she said daycare called them after the incident. The Allergist asked me some questions about it and then told me that they were in violation, they didn't handle the situation correctly and it should be reported. They didn't have the training they needed, she gave me some information on some resources. The Allergist also told me that now that he was exposed today to milk that it just made his allergy to the milk worse. The mistake they made today could make it harder or even impossible for him to outgrow his allergy to milk now.

This is the second time that daycare has made a mistake, they once gave him some cheese. He didn't eat that much so he just had hives at that time.

I have some phone calls to make tomorrow, what am I going to do? I really don't want to send him back to his daycare, but he has been there for 2 years and loves his friends there. How do I find a new daycare in a weekend?

It was a horrible day.