There are numerous reports of accidental poisonings in the past. The one below, from 1906, tells of a mother who was accidentally poisoned when her 3-year-old son attempted to mix medicine like his mother did.
Baby Puts Poison in Mother’s Cup
December 23, 1906 – Mrs. Kate Obenchain, wife of Fireman J.F. Obenchain, on the Norfolk and Western, died this morning at 2 o’clock, as the result of her three-year-old boy mixing 65 antiseptic tablets in a glass of salts.
The mother had prepared the salts, and while she was in the kitchen preparing a lunch for her husband, the little boy climbed up in a chair and poured the tablets into the glass.
An hour later, when she took the salts, the tablets had dissolved. She was seized with intense pain in her stomach, and then, when the child was interrogated, he told of “mixing medicine like mother did.”
Physicians were called in, but nothing could be done for the unfortunate woman, who had taken enough poison to kill 60 men.
She is survived by her husband and three children, the youngest only eleven days old. She was a Miss Phlegar, of Floyd County, and 23 years of age.
Source: The times dispatch. (Richmond, Va.), 23 Dec. 1906.
