National Poison Prevention Week is still ongoing, and Consumer Reports is not letting up with the safety directives being provided to concerned citizens. Yesterday, the safety organization sought to inform consumers about the danger posed by laundry detergent pods, and they’ve also released a guide detailing the other oft overlooked poisoning threats that can exist in the home.
Ingestion hazards are often posed by products that many people might not think about. Magnets and batteries can be swallowed by a child and do severe internal damage, and thus you need to take steps to keep these things out of a child’s grasp. Those small packages that often come in shoeboxes can also pose a threat, and should thus be disposed of in an area where children can’t get ahold of them.
When it comes to medication, cleaners, and cosmetics, parents need to make sure that they’re putting such items high up and in drawers and cabinets that have been secured by child-resistant latches. Parents might not realize the danger posed by cosmetics, but the truth is that these accounted for more incidents of child poisoning than anything else in 2011. The same precautions should be taken with makeup, nail polish remover, and other cosmetics that one would normally take with more commonly understood dangers.
Finally, be ready to act in an emergency. Have a poison control center’s contact information at the ready, and call the moment you think your child has ingested something dangerous.