Life-saver: Liquid Benadryl, stock it for emergencies

Eyes & lips as swelling reduced. 30 min. after dose.

It's the first week of summer vacation here, so no one expects anything very exciting to happen. We're all reveling in the lovely slowness of life without deadlines.

The placid nature of post-school living made it even more surprising when my friend's son came to her this morning complaining that his eye hurt. Minutes later, his lips, tongue, eyes, and hands were swelling beyond easy recognition.

Somehow, between his bed and a breakfast of the same cereal he regularly eats, this kid with no known allergies was exposed to something that triggered a huge immune response.

His mom, a medical professional, grabbed their liquid Benadryl and "practically poured" the recommended dose down the back of his throat. Almost immediately the swelling stopped increasing, so she didn't have to call 911 and he didn't end up with an emergency tracheotomy or worse.

Later in the morning and after consulting with his pediatrician, as the swelling reduced, she took these pictures (which she is allowing me to share here). Her son is a handsome, slim 8 year-old.

Lips, fingertips swollen 30 min. AFTER Benadryl.

Then my friend started calling other parents reminding us to keep liquid Benadryl on hand to abate an allergy emergency. [For those with known allergies, this may not be enough. Please consult medical professionals, which I am not, for advice.]

I don't have any on hand at the moment, but will have some in stock by this evening.

For years, I have carried aspirin in my bag because it can help reduce the damage of a heart attack or stroke (chew it in case of an emergency). Liquid Benadryl may not make my bag (though I plan to talk to my pediatrician about other forms), but I will be sure to have some on the ready at home.

What are your emergency medical supplies?

***Baby Toolkit is the chronicles of some geek parents, their kids, and their communities. We ARE NOT medical professionals, so please consult some real ones. We have no fiscal relationship with Benadryl or its makers. We just want everyone to be healthy and happy. We are Amazon affiliates, though there are no links on this page, so we do make a little bit of profit should someone order through our links (thanks!).  Be well and do good.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

Last year my oldest friend called me to say she had been bidding on the local public television auction. She won two items, a sightseeing flight over town and a will. I told her to schedule the flight in the tiny plane second. Then I felt immensely guilty for having a child and no will. Being me, I stuck my head in the sand for the next 11 months.

Then my friend and former college advisee, now a doting stay at home dad, posted to Facebook about creating his will. Jim and I congratulated him on being more adult than we were and my head went firmly back into the sand.

A week later the public television auction rolled around. I cannot resist watching and bidding. There was an estate package this year (2 wills, 2 powers of attorney, 2 living wills, and a family trust).

The package's retail value was intimidating, but we crossed our fingers for something in our budget. We locked horns with another serious bidder and they won the auction.

Another estate package came up a few nights later. We bid on it only to find the live bidding wouldn't start until we would be out of town. I was sure that we would lose the auction with our low bid, so I made a note to call my friend to watch and bid for us. I forgot to call her.

That Saturday night my cell phone rang. It was time for live bidding. I didn't realize they would call me. I waited on the line as no one called in to bid against me. The auctioneer closed the auction. We had won.

Tonight we had our first meeting with the lawyer. All day anxiety flooded over me. In retrospect, it was a waste of energy to be so concerned. The meeting went well. I learned a lot and feel pretty assured that our kids will be loved and cared for even if Jim and I meet an untimely end.

There's some life insurance shopping to be done now, but I know what kind/amount of coverage I should be carrying.

This part of adulthood kind of sucks, but our kids deserve such provisions.

Shake It Up: Local Earthquake

At 4:36 am we awoke to a bit of thunderous outdoor rumbling and indoor shaking. It looks like nothing even fell off our shelves.

Ranger, upon our atypical appearance in his room, said "lights off, blanket on!" He wouldn't abide any nonsense from his slightly dazed, adrenaline-fueled parents. The shaking stopped (with the ground, though not my nervous system) as soon as we went to pick him up. He immediately went back to sleep as if crazed adults burst into his room every early morning.

Anyway, this is a great day to think about your local hazards (we have tornadoes and earthquakes here) and formulate a plan of how you'll react in case of emergency.

Please visit our earlier post on daily habits that contribute to emergency preparedness.

Weather Alert: Midwest faces Super Ugly Super Tuesday

[This is not a political post.]

This morning I leapt from bed to the sound of a tornado alert siren. Jim and I know from experience that it beats the hell out of awaking to an actual tornado.

I was already awake when the sirens began wailing. I've been sleeping fitfully since the storms arrived around midnight. Our regional radar has been on my screen many times throughout the night.

So, half asleep, with my stomach in my throat, I lurch into a long day of hazardous weather forecasts.

Anyway, it seemed a good time to remind our fellow Midwesterners (and everyone else) of some of our daily habits concerning emergency preparedness.

And here are some good tornado safety tips from NOAA.

Take care. I'm off to dig out some helmets and flashlights in case things get bad this afternoon and evening. Plus, I think the helmets spur your will to live. Who really wants to be caught dead in a helmet?

***Baby Toolkit is the independent, unsolicited opinion of geek parents presently operating on limited sleep and uneasy watchfulness. We're definitely not professionals at this.

Break Out: When An Infant or Child is Accidentally Locked in A Car With The Keys

If you drive or ride in cars regularly with infants or small children- or know people who do- you should be thinking about automobile lockouts as summer is arriving in our hemisphere.

While we were loading our cars after baby group, one mom (a wonderful, caring, responsible person) loaded her baby and toddler in the car and their stroller and ended up accidentally locking her kids, her keys, and her phone in the car. A few of the playgroup moms were still there, so she didn't have to summon strangers to assist.

With the help of the hospital's security staff (our baby group meets at a local hospital), we were able to get her car open in about 20 minutes. The kids and their mom were frightened and relieved, and no one was hurt.

This lockout happened to an excellent, attentive mother through an atypical series of events. This could happen to anyone- even a stranger you see in a parking lot- so be prepared to help if it does happen.

#1- DO NOT PANIC. This seems to be the first item on many an emergency/disaster checklist, but it's for a good reason. When you panic, you have a much harder time sorting through the actions you need to take. Occupy your mind with "What CAN I do?" rather than "What's going to happen?" or "Why did I let this happen?" This is not the time for reflection or blame. Those kids need you to be clear headed and proactive.

Also, your children are taking their cues from you and you need to help them stay calm. You know how your child gets hotter when they scream? That is the last thing you need now. Make faces, sing songs, hop up and down like a rabbit, try and engage your child in some distraction (the more you look like an idiot the better your odds of making the baby laugh). Your kids need to know that everything is okay- so put on your goofy face and keep them as mellow as possible.

#2- NOTE THE TIME. During an emergency time takes on a completely abnormal feel. For me this incident just flew by, but for the mom it felt much longer than the time it took to get the car open. Knowing how long the car has been closed lets you know when it is time to break the window.

#3- CALL 911. You're phone is in the car? You're alone? Enlist the help of strangers. Repeat after me: "Hey, you- please call 911 my baby's locked in this car with my keys. We need help." Who cares what they think- as long as they get help there fast. If there is more than one person there, pick one to assign the task to. Sometimes in groups people become immobile- if you single someone out, they feel more involved in the situation and are more likely to help.

I didn't call 911 today because I didn't think they helped with lock-outs and I didn't want to waste any time. Nor did I call my auto club locksmith service because that always takes at least 45 minutes. It turns out that 911 will dispatch police and/or fire emergency responders if a young child or infant is locked in a car. They have a special universal tool to open a locked car door. Their tool may break your car's lock or do damage, but who can compare that to your child's safety. Don't worry that you may get the child out of the vehicle before they arrive, if so, they'll understand why you called. It's very good to call 911- because if the child needs assistance when removed from the car, they can provide first line medical assistance.

#4- COVER THE WINDOWS WITH BLANKETS OR TARPS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE- then the roof if you can get enough blankets. Do this fast. The heat and light entering through the windows and absorbed through the roof are causing the temperature in the car to increase. Covering the windows can help slow the rate of temperature increase inside the car.

#5- REMEMBER YOU CAN BREAK A WINDOW- BUT DO IT ONLY WITH PLANNING AND EXTREME CAUTION. This is an important option to remember, but it should only be used as a last resort. Breaking a window poses some danger for the children inside the car as the glass can spray everywhere. That kind of auto glass is almost impossible to clean out of the car fully, and you'll probably be finding bits of it in the car for years after the breakage. This is obviously bad with toddlers or infants, so pick your window judiciously and AS FAR FROM THE CHILDREN AS POSSIBLE. Also, don't injure yourself breaking the window. You don't need another emergency situation to deal with.

#6- ONCE YOUR CHILDREN ARE OUT OF THE CAR- REHYDRATE AND GRADUALLY COOL THEM. Human bodies are not designed to go from one temperature extreme to another without transition, so make sure you don't chill your kids while cooling them down. Give them plenty to drink- room temperature to cool drinks, but don't load up on ice. Truly cold things can make them quite sick when overheated. A cool washcloth is fine- but a cold one can cause more problems. You can take their shoes and clothes off to cool them down. A drastic change in environmental temperature can be problematic as well, so don't rush them into a room the temperature of a meat locker. Call your pediatrician if their behavior is at all abnormal.

#7- MAKE SURE YOU'RE OKAY BEFORE YOU DRIVE. This can be pretty emotional and traumatic, so don't feel like you have to rush off immediately. Take some deep breaths, get centered, and if you're still too shaken up to drive- try and think of someone who can help you and your kids get where you need to go. It's okay to ask for help.

#8- LEARN WHAT YOU CAN, ADAPT FOR THE FUTURE, AND FORGIVE YOURSELF. Yes, this whole situation sucks. And, yes, in hindsight any series of events could have been prevented, but you didn't want this to happen and you didn't intend for your kids to be at risk. Learn what you can from the incident and adapt so that it won't ever happen again and move on emotionally. Guilt alone gets you nowhere- and it can obscure actual insight into the situation.

And no matter how other people react or what they say to you, remember that accidents happen even with very good parents.

It hasn't happened to you yet? BE PROACTIVE:

-Stash a spare key on your car. My parents' cars always had magnetic key boxes on them while we were growing up. There's even a new powerful rare earth magnet one from GE with a combination lock and a connection point for a zip tie or wire cable. If you use a magnetic key box, make sure to put it somewhere inconspicuous (people will know exactly what's in it if they see it) and somewhere that it won't be bounced loose during travel on bumpy roads. You can use zip ties or a strong wire to secure a magnetic box (or even a naked key) to your car's superstructure. With the naked key method make sure the key isn't somewhere it will get a lot of exposure to corrosive elements (water, road salt, etc) or where it could get too hot and melt the key or the tie (close to the exhaust system, etc.).

-Stash a spare key in your wallet. If you always carry your wallet on your person, then this might be the best solution for you. At many locksmiths you can get a plastic key cut that fits into a credit card sized holder that fits discreetly in your wallet. This key won't work to get the ignition started if your car has a microchipped key, but they will probably get your door open. Consult the locksmith on this before ordering a plastic key. These wouldn't work for me as my bag is very likely to be wherever my keys are.

-Hook the keys to your person. I carry a billion keys, so many that my pants visibly sag when I shove them in a pocket. I always use a carabiner to attach my keys to myself, bag exteriors, and Ranger's stroller. This can be great when I clip them to my clothes when buckling Ranger in- or it can be disastrous like the time when I left them clipped to the diaper bag in the front seat while taking Ranger out and then closing the locked door. Ever since that storytime lock out that left Ranger and I stranded at the library (good place to be stuck during business hours) until another key could be delivered, I've been very conscious of hooking the keys to my pants when I put him in the car and not closing his door until I have my hand on the keys.

My mom, an elementary school teacher, can't afford to lose track of her keys at work, so she keeps them with her at all times with a stretchy coil wrist key chain.

-Load a couple useful items into your car in case this happens to someone near you. It was very frustrating to know that the lack of a simple wire coat hanger stood between us and those kids. We tore apart two umbrellas to try and get enough wire to open the doors, but it turned out neither wire was strong enough. Definitely stick a wire hanger in your car- preferably one with the paper tube at the bottom so you don't absolutely need pliers to cut/shape it. Pliers can come in handy too, and you should always have a general toolkit in your car (see Dad, I did periodically listen!).

Carry a large blanket or blankets (again, your should keep one of these in your car anyway) to cover windows and windshields.

I would also go so far as to recommend a safety hammer designed for breaking tempered auto glass (a third item that's always good to keep in reach of the drvier's seat). There are a number of brands and even some keychain models. If we'd had to break a window today, the safety hammer in my car would have been used. You don't want to be swinging a heavy object against the vehicle containing your children- that just creates additional risks and might cause the glass to spread further.

Does anyone have more tips to offer on automobile lockouts?

Admitted: What to Take When Your ER Visit May Become a Hospital Stay

Ranger came home from the hospital yesterday after a bout with rotavirus-related dehydration. He's back to his ornery self, so we're relieved.

Last post, we discussed preparing for and improving an ER visit, but you might want to throw a few extra items in the car if you think your child's ER sick visit may translate into a hospital stay.

• Socks for the kiddo. Hospitals are sometimes cold, especially for little people with short circuiting bodies. If there is any chance your child will be up and walking around, bring slipper socks or socks with grippy soles (hospital floors are slick). Our local hospital requires footing offering traction before they will let an inpatient walk around at all. Your own socks are far more comfortable than the semi-disposable ones the hospital offers.
  
• Snacks for you (or money for the vending machines). You won't want to leave your child alone in their room, and you may get hungry. Throw some portable, non-perishable food into your bag. This will keep you from the guilt of wanting to eat your child's food when it arrives. Don't feed your child any food you've brought in without first clearing it with medical staff, and realize this may mean you have eat it in secret to keep your toddler from melting down.
• Clothing, bedding, and toiletries for you. Chances are, you or another caregiver are going to sleep on a chair or sofa in your child's room. Pack something that is comfortable to sleep semi-publicly. Some hospitals have blankets and pillows for families, but don't depend on it. If you don't know these items will be supplied, pack a colorful blanket and pillow for yourself. Don't forget your toothbrush!
• For infants, a blanket, pillow, or toy that smells like home (and/or mom) can be very reassuring. (Thanks for sharing this tip, Amy!)
• Kid entertainment. Hospitals can be boring. Jeremiah and Jenni of Z Recommends like bringing some of Z's favorite books along. They also remembered that more and more hospitals are making VCRs and DVD players more available to patients, so it may be a good idea to grab some favorite kids' viewing. We didn't take anything along, so Ranger (who never watches tv) got to watch the basketball playoffs and the Wiggles' Wiggle Bay. It was pretty weird for him as it's the first time he's ever watched tv at any length.
• Reading material for you. Maybe you'll read it, and maybe you won't, but you may not be so lucky as to find last November's US magazine abandoned in a lounge- and the hospital novella-length privacy policy really lacks developed characters and plot.
  
• Bedtime ritual stuff. At home for bedtime, we read books, sing a couple of songs, and then tuck Ranger in with a plush dog. We found ourselves without any books and no plush dog on night one. The dogeared US magazine Jim had found in the family lounge told tales of celebrity that should be inflicted upon no child, so Jim sang extra songs. Ranger's grandparents sent a plush bear the next day, so doggie got a ride through the washer at home. It can be hard to get your child to sleep in the hospital. Make your job easier by maintaining as many familiar bedtime routines as you can manage.
  
• Kid toiletries and going home clothes & shoes. I speak from experience when I tell you it's sad not to have your own toiletries during a hospital stay. Not only do you feel bad, you also have to see people all the time. And, yes, hospitals can supply some of these items, but they are pale substitutes to the items you regularly use. Often you carry a pajama clad sick kiddo to the ER, remember to bring some clothes & footwear for when they're feeling well enough to leave.
• As the Z Recommends folks reminded me, many pediatrics wards offer refrigeration facilities for breastmilk. So, if your baby is breastfeeding, you may want to pack some pumping supplies. Make sure and ask a pediatrics nurse about the availability of breastmilk storage facilities, too.
  

Good general hospital guidelines:

• With pre-verbal infants and kids, the nursing staff is relying on you to tell them about your child's level of discomfort. Make sure and inform staff if you perceive a change in your child's condition or comfort level.
• Have a pen and paper handy and write down EVERY MEDICAL QUESTION THAT CROSSES YOUR MIND. That way, when a nurse or doctor appears, you won't forget to ask something important. Seriously, write them all down. You can skip the really stupid ones when you get to ask, but they may not look so stupid when you have a professional to answer them.
• Input & output: Make sure nursing staff knows what your child is taking in and expelling from their body. Confess if you ate your child's chicken strips.
• If you are hungry, don't be afraid to ask the staff for options. Depending on the hospital, you may just have vending machines and a cafeteria- or there may be a family lounge with free drinks (soda & coffee, not open bar)- or you may be able to buy food for yourself from the hospital to be delivered with your child's meals. It may not be gourmet, but it is delivered.
• Learn your nurses' names. We make sure to send a note back to the hospital about the quality of care we received (thus far, it's all been glowing). This is a way to support and encourage good service and high standards of patient care.
  
• Be on your best manners. That way if a problem arises, the staff will know that you are reasonable and respectful.
• If you are an online junkie (like most parent blog readers), ask if the hospital has wireless network access available or public computers.
• If your sick kiddo is sleeping, look for Closed Captioning options on the tv.
• Most pediatrics units keep kid-friendly snacks (Popsicles, Jell-O, graham crackers, etc.) at the nurse's station. They can usually find something your kiddo can eat even on dietary restriction. Don't hesitate to ask, it's actually better than giving them unapproved food.
• It's great to have the support of friends and family, but sometimes that support is better from afar. Don't be afraid to ask visitors to leave (or have the nurses ask for you) or to end phone calls quickly. Your kid needs to recuperate and you, dear parent, need not be exhausted when you and your child return home. It's also okay to head off visitors and callers in advance by not giving out the hospital room phone number and requesting that people not visit until further notice. We made sure to request that our friends with kids at home not visit as Ranger's virus was quite contagious and we didn't want to feel responsible for anyone else getting it. You are your child's gatekeeper. Help them rest.

Now, what did we forget or not know in the first place? Please tell us!

PolyGem, Better than a Dutch Boy: Goodbye Basement Flooding

When we moved into this house in 2004, a small, annoying wet spot would appear on our concrete utility room floor during heavy rains. In November, 2006, things changed drastically. Portions of our recently tornado-damaged gutters pulled free of the house under the hydraulic power of 14 inches of rain in one miserable rain storm. Over 50% of our finished, carpeted basement took hundreds of gallons of water. The emergency cleanup guys remarked as we watched the water flow out our garage doors- "at least it's draining well."

They cleaned and dehumidified for more than a week even with much of the water running out the front of the house. We thought our water problems were solved once we got the gutters reinstated, but we were terribly wrong.

The storm had cut a waterway into our basement. With every significant rainfall, we found ourselves vacuuming up gallons of water off the floor (trying to keep it from the carpeted region of the basement). Our house doesn't have a floor drain, so we couldn't hope for the water to clear itself.

Our already broken and improperly tilted patio had taken much of the water during the deluge, and we suspected that its repair might remedy the basement flooding by diverting the water. We hired concrete contractors to put in a new patio.


BabyGeek liked to supervise their work through the kitchen doors, and I think most of the guys thought of him as a mascot. They did an excellent job, but the flooding continued.

We got back on the proverbial horse and spent a long week last Fall with the incredibly generous assistance and guidance of family and friends digging trenches and laying irrigation tile to drain water around the house which is situated on a steep hill. We built up high banks adjacent to the house to insure drainage away from the foundation. The flooding continued.

We gave up. I whined, pouted, and cursed the day we bought this house. Paralyzed with frustration, Jim stuck his head in the sand (probably to avoid hearing my whining, pouting, and cursing). We spent rainy days and nights vacuuming up gallons of water with a carpet vac. Our basement retained the horrific flooded carpet (now dry, but pretty suspect), so we simply quit using half of our floorspace. The parties we envisioned and the guests we hoped to host all were sidelined until the flooding could be permanently stopped and we could install new carpeting.

So, what did we do? We turned to the Internet with the keyword search "leaky basement." Our favorite tv contractors, the team at "Ask This Old House," recommended on their web site actually looking at the problem area to assess the problem. One afternoon, Jim and my dad pulled down the drywall nearest the water's point of entry and they found a 7 foot long crack in the poured concrete foundation wall.

It kept raining, and now we could watch the water pour in. This small waterfall had quite the opposite effect of a Zen fountain. It left us desolate and bereft. We could now see how quickly we were losing ground in our war against the water. After losing a lot more sleep and getting really irritated with each other and the house, Jim struck upon a jury-rigged solution to collect some of the water into a bucket. [Using science: capillary action rocks!]

His sponge, board, t-shirt, and yarn solution may not have looked like much, but it now meant we only had to get up every 3-5 hours on stormy nights to vacuum and empty the bucket. We were no longer required to leave someone behind to mind the house on stormy days as long as we came back within 3 hours. It wasn't ideal, but it was progress.

And sometimes, a little progress is all it takes for momentum to build. Jim returned to the "Ask This Old House" web site with the new keywords "foundation crack," and there we learned about the incredible epoxy injection liquid concrete repair, LCR by PolyGem. It sounded perfect.

One Internet order and a few days later, I beat the UPS man to the door to receive this miracle leak stopper.

A few days and a couple phone calls to PolyGem later (they have an amazing and helpful staff), we took BabyGeek to Grandma's and started work.

We started on a Friday evening, and rain was predicted for Saturday afternoon. Our calls to PolyGem revealed that we probably needed less than 24 hours before water made contact with the repair.

We cleared the crack of debris and loose concrete with a steel brush. After a quick vacuuming up, we marked the crack at 1 foot intervals, so we would know where to place the injection ports. We marked these spots with sidewalk chalk. Jim, per the "This Old House" LCR instructions (which were so helpful and complete), gently put a 3 inch finishing nail into the crack at these marked points. These nails helped us line up the ports with the crack when cementing them to the wall.



We mixed the two part epoxy cement and attached the injection ports to the wall. After that, we cemented closed the front of the crack and around the ports. Once cement hardened and the ports were secure to the wall, we removed the nails. The cement took about 8 hours to cure (a little longer than it would take in a warmer environment; our basement was on the chilly end of the allowable temperature spectrum). After it cured, we mixed the injection epoxy cartridge, popped it the caulk gun, and filled the ports from the bottom port up. When the port above the one we were filling had epoxy ooze out, we capped the lower port and moved up to the next one. [Note: when moving the caulk gun, release the pressure on the cartridge before changing ports. Otherwise, you will spray a trail of epoxy from one port to the next.]

We bought extra injection epoxy cartridge because we didn't know how much epoxy, if any, would escape out behind the buried foundation wall. In cases were homeowners can access both sides of the wall, it would be advisable to cement the exterior wall before injecting the liquid epoxy. We ended up using all the injection epoxy from the kit and the extra cartridge, so this was money well spent.

On Saturday it rained for 7 hours. We normally would have experienced about a gallon an hour entering our basement with the rate of rainfall. It stayed dry. We're so happy.

We also thought the house would smell strongly of epoxy. The epoxy cement was almost odorless and the liquid epoxy was far more mild than we anticipated. We were able to close off that room for a couple days of curing and there is no residual odor today (4.5 days after application).

This fix won't work for every type of cracking wall, but it's definitely worth investigating if you have a persistent basement leak that won't be stopped by normal measures.

Contemplating Disaster: Daily Emergency Preparedness Habits

As parents, we deal with minor disasters every day. Major disasters are something we all contemplate in passing, but hope against.

A little over a year ago our neighborhood was hit by an F3 tornado at 2:03 AM. From our experiences and those of others in our community, we've established a few simple habits & household guidelines that are simple daily things that can help parents scrambling in disaster situations. This isn't your typical Red Cross or insurance company issued list of suggestions, so please keep reading.

Our son at a month and a half was sleeping in a Pack N Play bassinet at the foot of our bed. We went to bed just an hour earlier to the beginnings of a gentle, unseasonably warm rain. Waking to the tornado's roar, I screamed for Jim to grab the baby and get downstairs. Jim, being a very sound sleeper, responded entirely out of instinct with little conscious awareness of the situation.

He easily found the baby and tucked him in close because the winds were straining the roof and beams just over our heads. The house throbbed and strained in the winds while old growth trees and debris crashed throughout the neighborhood. Our neighborhood's power line had been severed as the tornado entered the neighborhood, so we were scrambling in surprisingly deep darkness through familiar territory. I followed the dark blur that was Jim and the baby down the hallway, down the staircase, and into a windowless internal room yelling "Faster, faster."

We were both shocked to arrive in the pitch dark room alive and intact. The baby was very still. Jim started saying his name (like a question) again and again. I ripped open a drawer to find a flashlight, too scared to ask what was going on.

Shifting the flashlight on, I saw the baby sound asleep, upside down in his father's arms. Jim had been disconcerted by the fact the baby hadn't snuggled his head into the crook of Jim's neck, and had been searching for baby's missing head in the darkenss. Earlier, Jim hadn't realized baby had spun around in his bassinet exchanging the position of his feet and head.

Like an idiot, I finally let Jim wake the baby to be sure that carrying him upside down had done no damage. The baby was fine other than being thoroughly annoyed and cried for the next few hours as we all awaited dawn.

1) Know EXACTLY where you infant or young child is at night. When a tornado wakes you (the sirens didn't sound in our county until AFTER the tornado had hit our area), you have precious seconds to get to shelter. It's amazing how quickly that time passes, the same must be true for most middle of the night disasters.

I have heard of firefighter who (because of what he has seen in fires) latches his children into their rooms each night. While that action bothers me, I now understand his well-meaning desire to instantaneously locate his children in chaos. If we had needed to search for our child in even a small room, we would all have been on the house's most vunerable floor through the ENTIRE DURATION of the tornado scrambling in the dark. Seconds count.

2) For infants, consider that a strong crib can be protective. Not only will a crib help you locate your sleeping child quickly, it can also be life-saving. A local family was not able to get to their baby before their roof collapsed. Minutes later, the father pulled roof and ceiling debris away from the crib to find an alarmed, but uninjured, infant within. Our baby in a Pack N' Play probably wouldn't have fared as well. It gives me chills to think about our Nature Nest in a similar situation.

3) Every night make sure your path is clear and/or any obstacles are known. Nighttime disasters often happen in the dark. Electricity isn't dependable when distaster strikes. In retrospect, this sounds really obvious, but I'd never thought about it before. Ambient light from the community was gone. A parent may not be able to see as much in the dark as they are accustomed to seeing.

When we put the baby to bed, we always pick up the floor of his room and move any trip hazards (push toys, etc.) from the direct path between the door to the crib. Balls are a particular concern. We put them in deep containers so a disaster with shaking (wind or earthquake) won't cast them into our path.

4) Flashlights that double as emergency lights can be really helpful in navigating stairways. We now have 2 emergency lights that turn on when the power goes out. One is near our stairway, the other is in our room near the doorway.

After examination of different styles we especially like the HyLuxes LED emergency flashlights for their easy removal from the convenient cradle-style charger.

5) Smoke detectors: install, test, & maintain. If you have problems with them going off without actual smoke or fire, make sure you didn't install it incorrectly (the directions are amazingly detailed). If your smoke alarm is installed according to manufacturer's instructions, check at a local hardware store to see if a different version wouldn't serve you better [some operate with ionization technology (better at detecting smoldering fires), photoelectric technology (better at detecting flaming fires), or both]. Houses with open stairwells (like ours) have fire spread faster than those with enclosed stairwells, so they require thorough alert systems.

A friend who works for Koorsen Fire & Security helped us figure out where to install our detectors and what type to install. He recommended some of the alarms be the type with emergency lights and that we put small fire extinguishers in our kitchen and garage. Another friend recommended this years ago when a small grease fire ended up consuming his family's kitchen. (We had assumed baking soda would be good enough even though we don't store it in a particularly convenient location. Our thinking now seems cloudy at best.)

6) Carbon Monoxide Detector: install, test, & maintain if you have ANY non-electric, flame-fueled device in your home (water heater, furnace, stove, oven, grill, space heater, dryer, gas fireplace, etc). This is especially imperative for people with older furnaces, but new homes with gas furnaces can have problems as well.

Earlier this year, our friends and their toddler daughter and infant son were quite sick for two days from carbon monoxide poisoning. Luckily they discovered a bird had built a nest in their gas furnace's flue before they got any sicker. A carbon monoxide detector would have notified them immediately of the problem.

We've spent a lot of time thinking about safety practices since the tornado.

It seems unnecessary that every family learn these safety conscious practices through personal experience. Also, some of these tips have other daily life utility (like not breaking your toe or loudly falling in the middle of the night when you go into the baby's room and knowing where to find a flashlight when you have to visit the circuit breaker in the dark, etc.).