- Knowledgebase: Child Safety, Injury Prevention and Treatment
- Questions about child safety and injury prevention, as well as treatment for minor injuries.
- 37. What should I do if my child eats something poisonous? - Top
- Poisonings in children under 5 years of age is a mayor cause of injury or death. Number one should be prevention. Children do not know or understand dangers and we as adults should go through whatever steps are necessary to prevent poisonings. All potential poisons would be locked up and secured out of potential contact by children. These include medications, cleaning products, insecticides and anything labeled as potentially poisonous. Also, we need to remember plants (some of which can be very dangerous).
However, if a poisoning does occur you should contact you child's physician and/or the poison control center for instructions. We also recommend that parents have syrup of ipecac available and you can purchase 1 ounce without a prescription but this should not be given without instructions from a medical authority because some poisons are more dangerous if vomited (which is what syrup of ipecac will cause your child to do).
- Updated: March 22, 2001
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