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Protect Your Family Against Poison
ever heard of the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”? Just by keeping harmful substances out of reach and locked up can greatly reduce the chance of your child being harmed by dangerous toxins.
Since no precaution is a 100% guarantee of safety, you can eliminate potential hazards by doing a number of things:
- Know exactly which household products are poisonous. Even something like mouthwash can be harmful swallowed in a large amount.
- Buy child-resistant packaging. Although this is not a full guarantee that your child won’t be able to open the package, it at least can slow them down and give you more of a chance to intervene.
- Never leave poisonous household products unattended while using them. It only takes seconds for something harmful to happen.
- Never mix different cleaning liquids together in hopes of inventing a more powerful cleaner. The mixtures can be harmful to children and will not have the proper labels on them.
- Always read and follow the exact instructions when giving a child a medication. Give them their medicines based on their weight and age.
Prepare Your Home:
- Store all medicines and household products up high and out of sight.
- Keep all products in their original containers, as they can be mistaken for something harmless
- Know which plants in and around your home are poisonous; either remove them, or make them inaccessible to children.
- Install carbon monoxide detectors. If the alarm does sound, leave the house immediately and call the fire department, emergency medical services, or the local utility company, from a neighbor’s home.
- You should have your house lead tested if it was built before the year 1978. You can cover the lead paint with a sealant, or hire a professional to remove it. You can reduce the change of lead-contaminant ingestion by washing your child’s hands, feet, toys, and pacifiers often.
- Post the toll-free national poison control hotline by every telephone: 1-800-222-1222
- Keep ipecac syrup handy and ask the advice of the poison control or physician on how to use it
Teach Safety:
- Teach children to never eat berries, nuts, or put any leaves, bark, seeds, or twigs from plants into their mouths.
- Never refer to medicines or vitamins as “candy.” Children will tend to think that it is harmless and can be taken in large amounts.
- Teach other adults and grandparent about precautions. Supply grandparents with a bottle of ipecac syrup and post important numbers by their phones as well.
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