My Robotic Child

What creature has two arms and two legs and is run by a battery? Robot? Logically, yes.  In reality, no. If you answered a child with a battery in her nose, then you got it right. And that child happens to be my youngest kid.

Last Saturday, Charm and her elder sister Camille were brought to a pediatrician (not their regular physician) in a nearby hospital in our place. Actually, it was only Camille who was scheduled for consultation because she was complaining about her right ear. But then, I told my wife to bring Charm also to have her nose checked because we have observed that every time she would have a runny nose, it was accompanied by a bad smell. However. every time we would apply an ointment in her nose as prescribed by her godfather-physician whose clinic is in Caloocan City, the bad smell would go away in a day or two. Only to come back when she would develop a runny nose again.

When the pediatrician checked Charm's nose, she already saw a foreign body in it. Since she didn't have the proper tool, she advised that Charm be brought to an ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist in another hospital because their resident specialist was already out. So, off they went to see the ENT specialist.

Since Charm was somehow traumatized by the procedure done on her by the pediatrician, my wife had a difficulty bringing her in to the clinic. It was good that the specialist's child psychology worked on Charm that he was able to make her obey him without any hassle. Seconds after he saw and confirmed the presence of a foreign matter inside Charm's nose, he was able to extract it without so much difficulty. And you know what the intruder was? A toy cellphone battery! So, that was what caused the bad smell after all.

We don't know how it got in Charm's nose. Maybe she was measuring if it would fit into her nose. Maybe she saw it on TV and tried it on herself. Maybe she was feeling lowbatt and she thought she could be recharged with it. We could only surmise.

Good thing, nothing serious happened to her while that object was in her nose. Now, Charm is still taking her antibiotic. And she could not help but giggle every time I would tease her that she's a battery-operated robot. Seriously, I hope that would be the last time it would happen to her. That child of mine.