Polk Township Vol. Fire Dept.

Poison Prevention in Your Home


Everyday thousands of young children are accidentally poisoned by household products and medications. While adults can read warning labels, children have no idea what these mean and therefore can't tell what is harmful and what is not. Simply teaching a child to keep away from dangerous areas is not enough. A child could still ingest cleaner left on a counter, eat an aspirin from mom's purse or drink gasoline or antifreeze out of bright containers in the garage. Therefore it's up to you to take simple precautionary measures to insure a child's safety.

Basic poison prevention tips

  • Common household items like cleaning products, medicine, make-up and plants account for most home poisonings.
  • Be prepared. Many accidental poisonings can be treated safely in the home, after getting medical advice first.
  • Write down the Indiana Poison Center 1-800-382-9097 phone number. Put it by the phone.
  • Buy Syrup of Ipecac. Keep it in your home. Keep it at grandparent's home. Ipecac is a treatment for some types of poisoning and induces vomiting.
  • NEVER GIVE A CHILD IPECAC OR ANYTHING ELSE WITHOUT MEDICAL ADVICE FIRST!
  • Get 'Mr. Yuk' stickers and affix them to any harmful products. Teach children what it means.

If you suspect poisoning?

  1. Stay calm. Keep the child calm.
  2. Look in the child's mouth. Remove any remaining pills, make-up, pieces of plants, etc.
  3. Take child and poison to the phone. Call Indiana Poison Center 1-800-382-9097or your doctor. Be prepared to give child's age, weight, product ingested and amount swallowed.
  4. Follow their exact directions. Good intentions may do more harm than good.
    NEVER GIVE A CHILD IPECAC OR ANYTHING ELSE WITHOUT CALLING POISON CENTER OR DOCTOR FIRST!

Some helpful medicine tips

  • Never refer to medicine as candy.
  • Keep all medications out of children's reach.
  • All cabinets, drawers and medicine cabinets should have child-proof locks.
  • Use medicine with child-resistant packaging.
  • Store medicine in it's original container, never in cups or soft-drink bottles.

Home/Garage poison questions

ItemCan you answer YES to these questions?
1

Do harmful products in your cabinets have child-resistant caps?
All cleaners and polishes should have safety packaging to keep little children from accidentally opening them.
2

Are harmful products stored in original containers? Original containers often give first aid advice. Never store products in cups, glasses, soft-drink or juice bottles. Someone may think it's food and swallow it.
3

Are harmful products stored away from food? Someone may get them confused and accidentally swallow poison instead of food.
4

Are harmful products out of a child's reach? Are all your cabinet's equipped with child-proof locks? They are very inexpensive and easy to install.
5
Do your medicine containers have child-resistant caps? They do save children's lives!
6

Are your medicines in the original container? Are the labels still on the container? Otherwise how would you know what was taken?
7

Are your vitamins or vitamin/mineral supplements in child-resistant packaging? Remember, a few iron pills can kill a child!
8

Did you know that common items in your garage are terrible posions? Death can occur after swallowing charcoal lighter, paint, thinner, remover, gasoline, oil, antifreeze or turpentine.
9
Are fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides locked up and out of sight?

So please take the time to follow these few simple common-sense guidelines. Prevent accidental poisonings in your home today, because....

Children act fast...so do Poisons!


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John D. Einhorn