Avoiding Accidental Ingestions
At gatherings away from home, parents can bring suitable activities for their children and assign a responsible adult to watch over them. This helps keep children engaged with safe activities.
We are entering the holiday season, where families and friends gather for holiday celebrations. These gatherings bring fun memories and also potential situations where infants and young children may not have as much supervision or are put in new surroundings without adequate child proofing that may increase their risk for accidental ingestions or poisonings. Here are a few tips to keep you children safe during the upcoming holiday celebrations.
Designate an adult to monitor infants and small children who are at risk for accidental ingestions/poisonings at holiday gatherings or family events.
Always keep all household products like medications, cleaners and chemicals high, out of sight, out of reach and locked away. Place child resistant caps on all medications.
Never refer to medicine as candy and avoid taking medications in front of your child.
Ask that adults keep personal bags out of children’s reach, up high - not on the floor.
Never store household products, medications, cleaners or chemicals in old water bottles or bottles/containers meant to store drinkable liquids or food items. Children have been known to accidentally ingest poisons stored inappropriately in water bottles or others plastic bottles meant for food or drink with serious consequences, even death.
When visiting other people’s homes, make sure your baby does not have access to chewable surfaces in homes built before 1978, as the paint put in homes before 1978 may contain lead.
Keep poison control’s phone number saved in your contacts and be ready with your child’s name, date of birth, most recent weight and health information, as well as any information regarding the substance/medication that is suspected/known to be ingested.
Poison control phone number: (800) 222-1222
Do not make the child vomit if an ingestion is suspected, call poison control immediately.
With these tips in mind, we hope your holiday gatherings are full of fun with many sweet memories!
Reference
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2017). Bright futures guidelines for health supervision of infants, children and adolescents. American Academy of Pediatrics.