Poisonings

If at any time you even suspect your child has swallowed or gotten into a poisonous substance, call the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222.

They will want to know the following information:

• Your child’s age

• Your child’s weight

• Your child's age

• Your address and phone number

• The type of poison (name, ingredients, amount, how recently)

• Any symptoms your child may have

Attempt to recover the ingested medicine or poison. Although we no longer want you to induce vomiting with Syrup of Ipecac or any other method, you should save any vomited material, if that happens by itself.

You can prevent accidental poisonings by using, storing, and disposing of medicines, household products, and other chemicals properly. Keep all poisonous products such as cleaning fluids, insecticides, detergents, paints, antifreeze, kerosene, medicines, etc., out of sight and out of reach of children. It is best to store these products in a high-locked closet or cabinet. Install latches.

Never store cleaning products, chemicals, or gasoline in day-to-day containers like milk jugs or soda bottles. Your child will think the contents are o.k. to drink. Use child-resistant caps on all medicine containers and throw out all unused prescription medications. Never refer to medicine as “candy”.

The medicines that the elderly take can be dangerous because they are typically stored in an easy to open container (for arthritis) and in pill case sorters (to help organization and memory).

Keep all plants out of reach. Some common plants are very poisonous, like mistletoe and philodendron.

Purses can be a problem because they may contain cigarettes (stop that habit anyway), matches, jewelry, medicines, and calculator batteries.