Help- a 4 year old with possible STD!

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Hey everyone,

I hope you can help me (and possibly help reassure my CNA!)

One of my CNAs, "Jane", has a four year old daughter "Mary" who is just the light of her life. She's a single mom, and she works extra shifts each week just to be able to provide for her child. Anyway, she had taken Mary to a local park yesterday to play on the playground and walk through the nature trail. Jane was sitting on a bench watching the children when she noticed that Mary was standing by herself out at the edge of where the playground sand meets the grass and facing away from her. She went over to see what Mary was doing, and to her horror when Mary faced her she saw that Mary had a used condom in her mouth, blowing it up thinking it was a balloon someone had left on the ground!!! :eek: She grabbed it away from her and made her rinse her little mouth out with bottled water, and she has made an appointment with a local pediatrician but they can't see her until Monday. She is understandably distraught and sickened, and has asked me through tears what her baby girl could have gotten. What would your opinions be? What should I tell her? She just left my office.

Can you believe that some creep would do such a thing- leave that filthy trash laying around a PLAYGROUND?!?!?!?! :angryfire

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

If she can't get into the ped right away, then if she is so distraught, go to an urgent care or ER and explained what happened and have her evaluated. She can talk with her ped MD and express the urgency of the situation, and ask if the MD would like her child to be seen in urgent or ER care if she can't get in immediately...many times that will get her in quicker or the authorization to go to urgent/er (insurance deal!).

Hopefully the condom wasn't used...(did she keep the condom for testing?)

Sadly things like this or worse are left in public areas children can get them. I have seen needle sticks in children from playgrounds from gosh knows what drug/person! And various items small children put in their mouths in a mili second like gum off the pavement, pills, candy, weeds, animal feces...you name it! Par for the course in children, and boy they are FAST! I have heard of a child that licked a bent burnt spoon at a playground one day..hmmmmm wonder what that had on it....ekkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!

But sadly some people could care less, or even think that a child may handle or ingest such items! This just doesn't cross the mind of some folks...

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If she can't get into the ped right away, then if she is so distraught, go to an urgent care or ER and explained what happened and have her evaluated. She can talk with her ped MD and express the urgency of the situation, and ask if the MD would like her child to be seen in urgent or ER care if she can't get in immediately...many times that will get her in quicker or the authorization to go to urgent/er (insurance deal!).

Hopefully the condom wasn't used...(did she keep the condom for testing?)

Sadly things like this or worse are left in public areas children can get them. I have seen needle sticks in children from playgrounds from gosh knows what drug/person! And various items small children put in their mouths in a mili second like gum off the pavement, pills, candy, weeds, animal feces...you name it! Par for the course in children, and boy they are FAST! I have heard of a child that licked a bent burnt spoon at a playground one day..hmmmmm wonder what that had on it....ekkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!

But sadly some people could care less, or even think that a child may handle or ingest such items! This just doesn't cross the mind of some folks...

No, she didn't keep the condom... but I'm sure it was used since it was rolled out and looked like a long balloon. I asked her and she said she threw it away... she was pretty hysterical at the time. She actually called the poison control center and was told that she should bring the child to see her pediatrician but that it was not emergent. She had her daughter gargle with Listerine weakened with water.

A playground.... what kind of sick freak leaves something like that on a playground... ?!?!?!

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Oh, that's horrible! I hope the poor dear is okay, and doesn't suffer any lasting effects from her behavior. Poor thing.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

Wow, I will be praying for "Mary" !

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I hope Mary will be ok. Will keep her in prayer

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I hope she makes this public, i.e., writes letters to the local paper, etc. Unless you have really small children you may not even know that something like this could happen. People need to know and get involved so this doesn't happen again.............!

Poor woman, I feel sorry for her and her little girl!

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Just an update... they went to the pediatrician yesterday, and some tests are being run. There is a rash around "Mary's" lips but that also may be due to the intense scrubbing "Jane" gave her after the incident.

I can't even imagine what she is goign through... she keeps breaking down in tears and feels like she exposed her little girl to these horrid possibilities. "Mary" is doing fine but "Jane" hasn't eaten since the incident, I've gotten her to drink some meal replacement shakes but she dry-heaves often during the day. I keep telling her that this won't always hurt so badly.

The thing is... when she got to "Mary", the little girl had already partially inflated the condom, and when Jane pulled it out of her mouth, a string of what she prays to god was saliva was stretched between the condom and her little girl's lower lip. I honestly think that Jane is going to need counseling over this. She looks like she hasn't slept at all since it happened, and she is trembling very often.

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Thats horrible. Please keep us updated.

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Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

As horrifying as this is, if her daughter is relatively healthy and has an intact immune system and unbroken skin it would be unlikely that she would "catch" anything from this exposure. I hope your friend can put this behind her and move on; her daughter needs Mom to be the strong one so she has someone to lean on. Besides-remember what they say about looking for "teachable moments", as in taking the opportunity to educate the child not to repeat the mistake in the future. If there ever was a better window of opportunity to set the ground for keeping Mary safer in the future it would be hard to find.:rolleyes:

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It is just so hard to comprehend that is not enough rooms to take care of that. Mary's mom you stay brave and very dilligent in watch over Mary. Most virurises can't live without a host. You have Microbiology on your side along with my Prayers

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I agree with Chaya. It is highly unlikely that the girl would catch anything from this. The condom had to be at least hours old by the time the girl got to it. I can however understand how the Mom must feel being a parent of three daughters myself. I feel so bad for her that this happened to her child. Give her my regards. I hope all turns out well for them.

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