Poison!
By: Nancy | May 15, 2008 | Category: Health
I wandered into the house one day at the age of three, announcing to my mom that I'd just eaten a bud from one of the plants in her garden. The stunt earned me an ambulance ride to the hospital with my mom and a Raggedy Andy doll from my dad—a bribe to get me to take the medicine that was going to make me "return" the flower bud. To my horror and to everyone else's relief, it worked.
Now, who knows why I did that? I didn't even like vegetables and there I was, chowing down on touch-me-nots in the flower bed. Kids and pets can be way more inquisitive about stuff that's not good for them than we might anticipate. Plan now so you'll know what to do later in a poisoning emergency.
Start by printing out this chart to help you in the first moments after there's been a poisoning. I just hung up a copy here at Gov Gab headquarters.
If someone's unconscious or not breathing after being exposed to poison, call 911. If they've swallowed something, call the American Association of Poison Control Centers at 1 (800) 222-1222 before doing anything else. And if they've gotten something in their eyes or on their skin, get them started flushing the area with running water before you call. This toll-free number connects you directly to someone at your local poison control center where they can talk you through what to do next.
We could all probably rattle off the ways to prevent poisoning, from reading the directions on packaging to keeping pesticides, medications, cleaners and other poisons out of kids' and pets' reach. But in the busyness of daily life, it's easy to forget to close a cabinet door all the way or to immediately put away a bottle of cleaner. Even as adults, it's easy for us to mix up medicine bottles, tubes of gel and bottles of liquid when we're in a hurry or distracted or when the lights are dim and we don't have our glasses on.
Consider looking around your house tonight to see what medications, cleaners and other non-edibles need to be moved up out of reach or labeled better to keep your family safe from accidental poisoning.
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