Keep your family safe…
Last year there were well in excess of 140,000 hospital admissions involving children and many house hold chemicals or medications.
With Christmas just around the corner, children are in the forefront of our minds and we need to take extra steps to prevent exposure to some of these dangerous chemicals. After all, it only takes one moment for a child to swallow something poisonous. Many poisonings happen due to a minor household distraction such as the door bell ringing, something on the stove or even a telephone call.
Where to start?
First, we need to appreciate that if a child wants to get into something they probably will, consider the following:
- Lockable cuphoards
Wherever possible store your chemicals and medications in lockable or childproof cupboards. - Out of sight and out of reach
Where possible keep these cupboards and chemicals out of sight and out of reach; when taking medications consider taking these also out of sight of the child.
- Where is your sweets cuphoard?
Keep treats and sweets far away from the chemical and medication cupboards. By association these will become very appealing and desirable to a child.
- Child proof bottle caps
Use child safe bottle tops for all of your cleaning chemicals, never store chemicals in anything that can easily be opened.
- Keep chemicals in their original packaging
Keep chemicals in their original packaging and never in anything that can easily be confused with regular liquids. Most standard packaging is child safe to some degree, but should the worst happen you’ll know the full details of the chemical taken which will be vital in assisting medical staff.
- Child safe tubs
Consider purchasing child safe tubs to store your medications within your lockable or child proof cupboards.
- Emergency Action List
Create an emergency action list of what to do should you child ingest any chemicals, put this on the cupboards and by each phone in the house. - Be vigilant and aware
At all times try to be vigilant and aware of possible dangers. Consider if you were your child what would you do and how would you do it?
Should the worst happen…
The worst can happen and you need to be prepared.
Ensure you know:
- Your child’s age
- Your child’s weight
- If your child is allergic to anything
- The chemicals involved and how it contacted your child i.e. eyes, swallowed or on skin etc.
- Approximately when and how long ago this happened.
If the worst does happen:
- Stay calm and act quickly.
(Your child will reflect you, so if you are calm they will be calm). - Get the item away from your child and if your child still has some in his mouth get them to spit it out.
- Call 999 for an Ambulance.
- Take a sample or the container to show the ambulance crew.
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