I wouldn’t recommend it as a nightcap
Everyone always has a bottle of this knocking around as a nice ‘natural’ medicine for colds and sniffles. You sprinkle it on the kids pillows or a tissue, or in a bowl of water to breathe in and I had no idea until now that it’s actually quite dangerous. After a week of sleepless nights, I climbed into bed bed last night and reached (in the dark) for my bottle of ‘cough drops’, put 3 drops on my tongue and immediately realised I had picked up the olbas oil by mistake. I had a drink of water and had a quick courtesy look at the back of the bottle just to check I hadn’t accidentally poisoned myself, turns out I had. A 2 minute reassurance call to NHS direct later and I ended up spending the night in hospital hooked up to an ECG and being treated as a toxicology patient – all for 3 tiny drops into an adult. Apparently it’s quite high up on the list of bad things to be swallowing, I wasn’t even allowed to drive myself to hospital. I’m absolutely fine, apart from being even more tired than I was but I wanted to share my tale of stupidity as in 10 years of being a parent, I’ve never once thought to put it out of the kids reach. For something that can cause eye injurires, breathing difficulties, seizures etc. if applied to eyes, noses or mouths – all it has is a tiny warning on the back. The cap isn’t child proof and it’s often something I would leave by the kids bed without a second thought. If you have a bottle of this, please please go and put it up high and don’t leave it where small hands can get it. Please feel free to share, as I had absolutely no idea about it, same goes for things like karvol and any essential oils based products.
