Netcare warns parents to take steps to avoid accidental poisoning of children at home

Netcare has warned parents of younger children to exercise caution at home to avoid accidental poisoning.

Netcare’s national quality and systems manager for trauma and emergency Rene Grobler said, “Approximately 90 per cent of accidental poisonings worldwide occur in the home environment, and the majority of such cases seen in Netcare emergency departments involve babies and very young children who have ingested something that could be harmful.”

According to statistics quoted by Grobler, the highest number of accidental poisonings, accounting for 44 per cent, occur among children aged one year and younger. “At this age, babies start crawling around or using walking rings and it is surprising how quickly they can reach into unsecured cupboards or a travellers suitcase to access cleaning products, medicines, garden products such as pesticides, weed killers and fertiliser, or any number of potentially toxic substances.”

Toddlers aged between two and three were involved in 27 per cent of accidental poisonings while 13 per cent were aged between three and four.

Grobler listed the following safety tips to avoid accidental poisoning:

• Store any potentially poisonous or toxic items in cupboards with safety locks, ensuring that cupboards are locked at all times. This includes medicines, household chemicals, cleaning products, alcohol, gardening pesticides etc.
• Keep handbags, shopping bags and hand sanitiser safely out of reach
• Make sure that visiting guests’ medicines are stored out of reach and sight of children
• Dispose of unused medicines safely
• Choose child-resistant medication packaging where possible
• Never store anything not meant for human consumption in packaging associated with food and drink.
• Be sure to keep cleaning products in their original packaging
• Never suggest to a child that medicines are ‘sweets’ or ‘cool drink’.

Grobler said that some types of child-resistant packaging can be opened more easily when children bite on them and other types of packaging, which are supposedly inaccessible to children, can be compromised by pressure changes.

“It is safer to adopt the philosophy that there is no such thing as ‘child-proof’ or ‘child-safe’ packaging.”

General manager for emergency, trauma, transplant and corporate social investment at Netcare Mande Toubkin advised that parents who have any reason to suspect accidental poisoning should seek medical care immediately instead of waiting for symptoms to develop.

“Try to identify what poison may have been taken, and if possible establish the quantity, or dose that has been consumed because these are important details for the medical professionals to determine the treatment required,” said Toubkin.

“Whether or not there are children living at home, it is well worthwhile developing safer habits and being aware of the dangers common household products may pose. It is always ‘better to be safe than sorry’ and developing awareness of potential accidental poisoning risks in the home and addressing these immediately could save a life.”

Assistance is available 24 hours a day through Netcare 911’s national emergency operations centre on 082 911.

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