Full disclosure: As a mother of three, I have called poison control twice. Once when my son, almost 2, swiped a pill of mine that looked a little too much like an M&M and again when my youngest daughter, also almost 2, decided to taste a detergent pod while helping me with the laundry.
The third week in March is National Poison Prevention Week.
According to The Department of Health and Human Services, a poison is anything that can harm someone if it is 1) used in the wrong way, 2) used by the wrong person, or 3) used in the wrong amount.
Now is a great time to enter the Poison Control Hotline number into your phone: 1-800-222-1222.
And, while when I called about my daughter Lily’s nibble on a detergent pod in 2010, the operator commented that such an exposure was a “new one” because that product had not been on the market very long, The American Association of Poison Control Centers states that in 2015, poison centers received reports of almost 12,000 exposures to highly concentrated packets of laundry detergent. Unlike regular laundry detergent, which can cause mild stomach upset, the highly concentrated nature of the packets can cause excessive vomiting, wheezing and gasping. Some children have had breathing problems serious enough to need a ventilator. (Though Lily had none of these problems, we stopped purchasing the tempting candy-colored pods.)
Other new poisons that families should be on the alert for include e-cigarettes, liquid nicotine and hand sanitizer. The most common poison exposures are to cosmetics, cleaning products, and medications.
Websites:
http://poisonhelp.hrsa.gov/poison-info/index.html
http://www.poisonprevention.org/
http://www.aapcc.org/prevention/nppw/
http://www.poison.org/poison-statistics-national
http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyHomes/ByTopic/Poisoning.html