Baby Exposed to Mold (From a Sippy Cup) - FREAKING OUT

Updated on December 18, 2012
S.F. asks from Ogdensburg, NY
11 answers

A quick dose of info - I have diagnosed OCD so any 'normal' issue thta causes stress is a serious issue for me. My baby is 9 1/2 months old.
So last night was the first time since my second was born that my husband and I actually had a babysitter come and take care of the girls and put them to bed. I have been dreading it because I hate to leave them alone but I knew it had to happen so we asked a couple that we trust 110% and off we went. I ran thru the rules and schedules and left little notes just incase and that was it. All went really well until we came home at 11:30pm and I found a sippy cup that was filled with water and had been sitting in the corner in the back of the kitchen. The cup had been there for a month or so and I know what you are thinking - why didnt you take care of it right away? Why was the cup sitting there for so long and I truly have no excuse other than I was planning on throwing it away but something inside me kept saying hold onto it and clean the next time you do dishes - it just never happened. Anyway long story short our babystitter gave the cup to my baby and she tried to convince me that she was just banging the cup around but we all know that she was just saying that to try to make me feel better. I know she would never have done it on purpose and whats done is done but still. So when I came home and saw the cup on the table where we eat my heart sank. I opened it up and the water inside was so murky and there were serious floatys in it and the plastic valve that most of all sippy cups have was wet and covered in 'black' mold. Im sure that if she had drank any that the sheer nasty taste would have turned her off but still Im almost 100% positive that she would have consumed some and I am FREAKING OUT. My husband and my Mother are both telling me that she is perfectly fine and to stop dwelling but my OCD has me in serious panic mode and I cant seem to shake the feeling that even though she appears okay she is sick or will get sick from this. Please tell me she will be okay and offer some words of wisdom because I seriously feel sick with worry

Thanks in advance

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B.C.

answers from Norfolk on

She's fine.
At least she didn't pop a caterpillar in her mouth.
I knew a Mom who saw her baby do this and talk about a freak out!
Some Moms get upset if their toddlers get into the dog biscuits and happily proceed to chew/teeth on them.
What do you think makes blue cheese blue? - the mold.
So sometimes it's deliberately cultivated as part of a food.
Chalk this up as one of those things that alarms you now but will be a funny story someday.

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D.J.

answers from Detroit on

I'm sorry, but you're probably not going to like my response, which is, you better get used to this. Children do some amazingly disgusting things like getting a hold of old sippy cups (even if somebody else gave it to them), eating petrified food they find underneath a restaurant table, and chewing on grocery carts. I'm sure it's really hard to deal with this stuff with OCD...it was pretty hard to bear witness to events like this without.

There is nothing you can do about it now, just monitor her to see if she gets sicks. Hugs. This is one of the ugly sides of motherhood.

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D.P.

answers from Detroit on

that's where penicillin came from

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A.S.

answers from Boca Raton on

You can call your doc if you need more advice about what, if anything, you should do.

If it were me I would not give it another thought.

If this is the worst thing your child ever ingests you'll most likely be in good shape.

7 moms found this helpful

L.A.

answers from Austin on

Your child will be fine.

Heck they drink bath water. We carry them on our shoulders even when wearing jackets and coats that have not been washed in years.. then they stick their hands on their car seats that probably have not been even wiped down in forever..

crawl on floors, rugs carpets and then stick their hands and feet in their mouths..even when people have pets that sit with their bottoms on rugs and floors, the kiddos are crawling around down there..

This builds up their systems to fight these germs..

Next time you have a problem throwing something away for a long period of time, ask your husband to do it for you.. I do this all of the time for my husband.. He cannot stand to make those decisions..

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E.M.

answers from Phoenix on

My kids have both taken swigs from nasty sippy cups filled with old juice or milk. GROSS. I also caught my younger one eating a booger the other day..bbbblllllluuurgh.... That has got to be filled with way more nasties than some old juice or water...
In each case, they quickly realize that this is something they don't want to eat. That is what taste buds are for, alerting us when something is spoiled! The only things that I could think of would be allergic reactions or food poisoning of some kind. If she didn't puff up or start vomiting by now, I would not worry one bit.

4 moms found this helpful

R.R.

answers from Los Angeles on

You said it best, what's done is done. Take several deep breaths, I truly doubt she would have drank anything if she tasted it, and a teeny bit of mold would do her no harm...people get sick from harmful mold when they are exposed to it repeatedly. She will be fine. Lesson learned, toss or clean when necessary :)

3 moms found this helpful

J.S.

answers from Hartford on

Chances are the mold was clogging the sippy duct and she couldn't drink any of the water anyway. Even if she did, it was just water and not juice or milk. I'm sure that your baby is fine.

There are far, far worse things that your children will put into their mouths. I'm a terrible germophobe, and terribly OCD myself. Having children has been quite a challenge for those particular issues, I'll tell you.

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R.R.

answers from Hartford on

if your soo worried call you doctor , just to make you feel better. I know when something doesn't sit well with me when it comes to my kids i rather b safe then sorry. mostly its nothing. but like i said better safe then sorry

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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

My DD has accidentally drank weird things before I noticed. You should observe your child (without freaking her out about it) over the next few days and see IF she gets sick. IF she does, then take her to the doctor and explain what you think the cause is. Not that it's great, but people are exposed to a lot of things you don't even see and are OK. That's what immune systems are for. I find that if DD is exposed to something (like bad chicken), she pukes it up pretty quickly, within the day, if not within hours. It might not hurt to give her extra fluids today, but please don't worry unless she starts acting sick.

Example: http://askville.amazon.com/dangerous-mold-daughter-drinki...

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L.J.

answers from New York on

I know just how you feel. Whenever something occurs and I am not here to control it, I panic the same way. Example, my husband and I don't leave my daughter's window open when she sleeps because the noises startle her. She was being watched by a family member, and sure enough, they left her window open. We never combined bottles of formula. If a bottle was running so low that it didn't have enough to make the bottle, we would just start a new bottle. How many times did I come home to, "oh, I didn't know" from family members. Or the worst was, "oh, I meant to tell you, our little baby was sick with a fever last week, but I'm sure he's all better by now. I meant to tell you before you came over!" Please don't panic, you're doing the very best you can, as we all are (I'm a stay at home mom too, except when I'm in school) and occasionally you have to trust people and hope everything goes o.k.. I'm sure your baby is fine (as my husband and my mom tell me all the time too). And, you know what, 99% of the time they are right.

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