A.P. started walking when he was 9 months old.  He was running before he was a year.  He was able to get into things before he really understood the word  ’no’.  He also has some hearing issues we didn’t know about yet, so he couldn’t always hear me anyway.  Good times.

Soon after he started walking, he was standing in his favorite spot, right next to the dog and in front of the living room window of our 57 year old house, facing the street.  “How sweet”,  I thought. “A boy and his dog looking out the OH MY GOD IS HE EATING PAINT CHIPS?”

I had recently heard some news about the dangers of lead poisoning in children. I called the pediatrician’s office immediately, who said not to worry; they test children at 9 months when most of them start crawling. So my baby had been eating paint chips for 3 months already? The pediatrician’s office reassured me that it takes a ‘lot of lead’ to poison a baby.  Not satisfied with that answer, I hung up and called the Kent County Health Department. The person I talked with said I needed to have him tested immediately. I had that done and the results were not so good. A blood lead level of 10 is where they start to get worried. A.P. was at a 9, but really, no lead is good lead. 

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