Curious toddlers often victims of opioid epidemic

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Curious toddlers find the drugs in a mother's purse or accidentally dropped on the floor. Sometimes a parent fails to secure the child-resistant cap on a bottle of painkillers.

No matter how it happens, if a 35-pound toddler grabs just one opioid pill, chews it and releases the full concentration of a time-released adult drug into their small bodies, death can come swiftly.

These are some of the youngest victims of the nation's opioid epidemic — children under age 5 who die after swallowing opioids. The number of children's deaths is still small relative to the overall toll from opioids, but toddler fatalities have climbed steadily over the last 10 years.

In 2000, 14 children in the U.S. under age 5 died after ingesting opioids. By 2015, that number climbed to 51, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, alone, four children died last year of accidental overdoses. Another 2-year-old perished in January.

Each family who loses a toddler to opioids confronts a death that probably could have been prevented. Here are a few of their stories:

Cataleya Tamekia-Damiah Wimberly couldn't sit still. She spent most of her first birthday party in Milwaukee dancing and diving into the cake. But her first birthday party was also her last. Nearly three weeks later, she was found dead of a cause her mother never suspected — a methadone overdose.

Helen Jackson, 24, was styling her older daughter's hair when she got a call from Cataleya's father, who shared custody of the little girl. He sobbed on the phone as he explained how he found their daughter unresponsive the morning of Feb. 16, 2016.

"I screamed so hard and so loud," Jackson said. "The screams that came out of me took all my strength, all my wind. It was just terrible."

Police were puzzled. They looked into whether the toddler was smothered while co-sleeping with her father and his girlfriend. They also investigated carbon monoxide poisoning because of a gas smell. Toxicology tests eventually revealed the methadone in her system.

Jackson said her daughter, while in the care of her father, was at a relative's house when she swallowed the methadone that took her life.

Police are still investigating how Cataleya got the methadone. The case could be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office for consideration of criminal charges, said Sgt. Timothy Gauerke.

Since Cataleya's death, friends and family have commented on what they perceive as Jackson's strength in dealing with her loss. In reality, she said, she feels fragile and weak.