It is natural for children to explore their surroundings – unless they’re getting under the kitchen sink or into the medicine cabinet where hazardous chemicals and medicines are kept. REMSA reminds parents to store hazardous materials – including medication – out of a child’s reach. Children do not intentionally ingest something they know is going to be harmful to them. No child wants a tummy-ache or a trip to the emergency room. Yet this happens, with approximately 800,000 kids rushed to the Emergency Department each year for accidental poisoning. Of these, approximately 30 children will die according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 90 percent of child poisonings occur in the home. Nearly every accidental ingestion follows a similar script:
1. Child discovers something they assume is edible
2. Parent discovers child consuming something they shouldn’t and reacts with the expected horror and shock, which is
3. Matched by equal shock or confusion on the part of the child
So why do children eat poisonous things?
1. Mistaken identity – This is a common cause of poisoning among older kids. Many toxic items look similar to other food or beverage products. Medicine capsules or multi-colored detergent packets look like candy. Tiki lamp fuel looks like apple juice. And to make matters worse, not all poisons, such as antifreeze, taste bad. Kids may find some dangerous things palatable.
2. Exploration – When encountering something new, infants and toddlers instinctively put it in their mouth to explore. This tendency diminishes as children get older but it never completely goes away, especially if you are holding something that looks edible.
3. Mimicry – A child mimics behaviors they see adults doing. This is a common theme in alcohol and medication ingestions. Mimicry is a powerful drive in children and acting the same as mommy or daddy is a very pleasurable experience for children and can have the same allure to a child that a piece of candy might.
The job of keeping poisons away from children ultimately falls on the parent. Here are some tried and true guidelines that will help you succeed in keeping your child safe:
General Poison Prevention Guidelines:
1. Avoid having cleaning chemicals scattered around the house. It may be convenient to keep cleaning agents in the room where you will use it, but the more places you keep chemicals, the more likely they are to be left in an area where children can access them. Pick one closet on each level of the house to use for storage of dangerous items. Lock the door with a safety latch at the top of the door or install a locking door and keep the key high up on a nail. Keep medications, including vitamins and skin ointments, in a locked cabinet. Simply putting bottles up high doesn’t guarantee safety, especially since children often climb on sinks or cabinets.
2. Keep chemicals with you while in use. Don’t set them down on a counter or leave them in another room. It only takes a second for kids to endanger themselves.
3. Affix the number for poison control to your phones and program it into your cell phones. The national toll-free number is 1-800-222-1222.
4. Watch out for grandma! As much as 20 percent of child medication poisonings occur through exposure to a grandparent’s medication. Grandparents are not use to childproofing their house and often have medications in attractive, bright colored pill boxes in their handbags.
5. Never store food and cleaning supplies or other chemicals together, since a leak could poison the food.
6. Call poison control with any questions you have about plants. It is not solely an emergency number; you are free to call with questions about potential poisons.
7. Store cleaning products and medications in their original containers so children do not confuse them with something else. Don’t store chemicals in recycled juice bottles or milk jugs. Never refer to medicine as “candy” in front of children. Avoid easy-to-open pill container tops or day-of-the-week organizers, which are especially dangerous to children. Pills in their original containers can be easily identified to poison control if a child does accidentally ingest them.
8. Keep children fed and hydrated. Hungry and thirsty children are more prone to put something in their mouth, or to improvise when nothing else is made available.
9. Use only the exact measurements when administering medication and read the instructions twice while double-checking your dose, ensuring that what is on the label matches the measurement tool you are using. Don’t guesstimate or use inaccurate kitchen utensils to measure out medicine.
10. Do not self-medicate your child or mix medications. Do not use over-the-counter products as sleeping aids or as a means to regulate your child’s behavior.
If You Suspect a Child Poisoning:
1. Grab the package or pill container, or a sample of what the child has been eating. Have it ready when you call poison control to determine the toxin and the proper treatment. If the child is unconscious and/or seizing, skip poison control and just call 911 directly.
2. It is no longer recommended that parents self-administer Ipecac syrup, since it often does more harm than good. It is often more harmful to have the substance come back up than it would be to have it stay in the stomach.
