Boy, two, turns ‘lifeless’ after chewing his 23-year-old mother’s nicotine gum he found in a drawer

A two-year-old boy turned ‘lifeless’ and collapsed just minutes after chewing his mother’s nicotine gum which he found in a drawer.  

Sophie Balint from Port Talbot has revealed her horror after after her son Tommy had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance and she now wants to warn parents of the dangers of ‘poisonous’ nicotine products on children.

Sophie, 23, said Tommy, two, and older brother Ozzy, four, had found the chewing gum in a drawer while she was redecorating on November 8.

But after being told to spit out the gum after a matter of minutes, the toddler began to sweat and vomit before becoming ‘lifeless’.

Sophie said: ‘We were redecorating my mother’s house and the boys went in the bedroom and must have just thought it was chewing gum.

‘It was in their mouths for a couple of minutes and the next thing Tommy starting crying and saying he had a bad belly.

‘Within five minutes he started being sick and within about 15 or 20 minutes he was lifeless lying on the floor. He couldn’t lift his arms and his eyes were rolling.

Sophie Balint from Port Talbot, pictured with Tommy and her other son Ozzy, four, said it was ‘so scary’

‘Luckily the next door neighbour was a first aider so he came to help. He was on the phone to the ambulance and we had to lie him on the sofa flat and keep him awake.’

According to the NHS, large amounts of nicotine can prove ‘life threatening’ to children.

Symptoms of nicotine toxicity overdose or poisoning including vomiting, sweating, drowsiness, shaking, confusion and seizures.

Sophie, who works in electroplating, said: ‘The first aiders were there within 15 minutes but he had to stay there until the ambulance came.

‘He was like that for around two and a half hours and by the time the ambulance came he had come around.

‘The doctors said 80% of it had gone by that time. It was only 4mg nicotine so that was quite low.

‘They said if he had chewed the whole packed it could have shut his organs down.’

Both Sophie and Tommy were taken to Morriston Hospital where checks were carried out but he was soon back to normal 

Both Sophie and Tommy were taken to Morriston Hospital where the toddler was kept for a couple of hours for observation.

Sophie said: ‘They did some tests to check his heart and check his blood but he was back to normal.

‘The doctor who saw Tommy was shocked, he had never seen anything like this. He had no idea how toxic it is.’

She added: ‘In the house you wouldn’t keep paracetamol in a drawer but there might be chewing gum. People don’t know about this

‘It was so scary. He’s normally such a busy boy, he doesn’t stop talking, so to see him lifeless [was terrifying]. All he remembers is being sick and going into the ambulance.

‘He’s quite big for his age, if he was little and skinny for his age I don’t want to think about what could have happened.

‘I was hysterical. Ozzy showed us what he had taken, and he was so good trying to keep the baby awake.’