Preventing Household Poisonings

Almost all poisonings happen in homes. Every day, children are treated in emergency rooms for poisonings.

The following steps can help you prevent a poisoning in your home:

• Never leave small children alone in a room with cleaning, cosmetic, laundry, or medical products. All medicine safety tops aren't completely childproof. Some laundry or detergent packets or pods look like candy to young children. So keep them out of sight and reach from children.

• Keep alcohol and tobacco products out of sight and reach. Both can cause physical damage if swallowed by a child.

• Keep medicines, vitamins, and herbal remedies out of the reach of children. Many medicines are mildly to highly poisonous. Some medicines can kill a child. These include heart medicine, pain medicine, sedatives, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and seizure medicine.

• Be sure you give a child the right dose of the right medicine. The dosage is usually based on the age or weight of the child. Giving too much (overdosing) can cause serious problems. Never give adult medicines to your child unless the dose and the medicine are prescribed by your child's provider.

• Remove any poisonous plants from your home. These include pothos, caladium, castor bean plant, elephant's ear, philodendron, mistletoe, holly, and dieffenbachia. These plants can cause skin irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, confusion, and other more serious side effects if a child eats them.

• Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that can cause sudden death. It is found in fumes produced by vehicle engines, furnaces, stoves, lanterns, gas ranges, or by burning charcoal and wood. Make sure you have battery-powered or battery-backup carbon monoxide detectors in your home. Change or check the batteries in your carbon monoxide detectors every 6 months.