Safety

Every parent wants to keep their child safe. While childproofing your home against physical accidents is relatively straightforward, poisoning prevention steps are critical for keeping young children safe. Below are recommendations to help protect your child from chemical, medical, and biological contamination.

General Poison Safety Tips

• General poison safety measures are typically used to prevent children from gaining access to potential poisons, chemicals, and other harmful contaminants. This starts with:
• Keeping all poisons, cleaning products & medications out of reach.
• Installing safety latches on all cabinets that hold medicines and household products.
• Tightening all caps on chemicals and medicine bottles.
• Only purchasing products that have child-resistant packaging.
• Making sure to use all child-resistant packaging properly by closing the container tightly after each use.
• Keeping the poison center hotline posted in all contact sheets.
• Making sure your babysitter has the Poison Help number: 1-800-222-1222.
• Carefully reading all medicine and product labels before each use.
• Teaching your child to always ask an adult before eating, drinking, or touching anything.
• Not relabelling product containers or reusing containers for another substance.

Medicine Safety Tips

Every year children are accidentally poisoned by taking adult medications or by getting their hands on child medications that are formulated to taste good.. To help prevent medicine poisoning you should take the following steps:

• Ask all visitors, house guests, and babysitters to keep purses, briefcases, and bags that contain medicines up high, away, and out of sight from where your child can reach them.
• Only purchase medicines that use child-resistant packaging whenever possible. Then keep in mind that the term “Child-Resistant” does not mean “Childproof.”
• Use all child-resistant packaging properly by closing the container tightly after use.
• Read the labels on all medicines before each use and follow directions exactly.
• Teach your child what medicine is and why you must be the one to give it to them.
• Never call medicine “Candy” or make it overly appealing just to get your child to take it when ill.
• Never leave medicine out on a kitchen counter or near a sick child’s bedside.
• Always turn the light on when giving or taking medicine.
• Double-check the dosage every time.
• If you wear glasses make sure to put them on to read the label when you need to take or administer medicine.
• Do not take your own medicines in front of your children.
• Never give more than the prescribed amount of medicine.
• Never “borrow” a friend’s medicine or take old medicines.
• Let your physician know about any other medicines you are taking so you can avoid harmful or dangerous drug interactions.
• Clean out the medicine cabinet periodically and dispose of outdated, expired, or unused medications.
• Always relock and tighten the safety cap on a medicine bottle.
• Don’t transfer medicine from a child-resistant package to an easy-to-open container.
• Always read the labels of prescription and over-the-counter medicine.
• Use the correct measuring device, such as a dosing cup, dosing syringe, or dropper that was included with your medicine.
• If the instructions on the medicine label are not clear, or you don’t know how to use the dosing device, talk to your pharmacist or doctor before using the medicine.
• Never share or sell your prescription medicines. This is particularly important to impress upon teens and college age students who may be taking medication regularly for ADHD, anxiety, or depression.
• Monitor the use of medicines prescribed for children and teenagers.
• Note which medicines are dangerous when mixed with alcohol, and abstain from alcohol consumption when taking them, or when you are the only adult watching your children.
• Talk to your physician before taking any vitamins or herbal supplements. They can interact with your medicine.

Household Product & Chemical Safety Tips

Household products and cleaning chemicals are also a common cause of accidental poisoning. You should use the following tips to prevent your children from accidentally being exposed to, or consuming chemical contaminants.

• Keep all your home cleaning products in their original container with their original label intact.
• Check to make sure that all laundry product labels contain first aid information.
• Make sure to close all household cleaning product containers immediately after use and store them out of children’s reach.
• Avoid using food containers such as cups or bottles to store household and chemical products.
• Carefully teach your children that laundry and other cleaning products and their containers are not toys.
• Make sure to keep laundry products out of reach of young children.
• Always rinse and tighten the cap on laundry containers before throwing away or recycling.
• Do not use empty detergent containers for storage of any other materials.
• Remove children, pets, and toys before applying any pesticides inside or outside your home.
• Use tamper-resistant products to protect your children from exposure to mouse/rat/insect poisons.
• Regularly clean floors, window sills, and other surfaces to reduce possible exposure to lead and pesticide residues.
• Make sure to have your child tested for lead.
• Hand wash your child’s toys, pacifiers and bottles often.
• Always store food in a separate area than household cleaning products and chemicals.
• Never combine household cleaning products because some chemical mixtures may release irritating gasses.
• Use fans, open windows, or take other steps to improve ventilation when using household cleaners and chemicals.
• Routinely check the spray nozzle on products before use to ensure that it is directed away from your face and other people.
• Always wear protective clothing when working with chemicals and pesticides. This includes things like long-sleeved shirts, long pants, safety glasses, long socks, shoes, and gloves.
• Keep away from areas that have recently been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals.
• Never let your child sniff chemical containers.
• Keep batteries out of a child’s reach.
• Keep magnetic toys and other magnetic items away from small children to prevent choking hazards.
• Install carbon monoxide detectors near or in your home’s sleeping areas and make sure to have one on every level of the home.
• Have your home tested for the presence of Radon gas.
• If you have a well, and/or live in a rural area, have your home’s drinking water supply tested annually.