Household Cleaning Products Poisoning
There are thousands of children and infants need medical care for poisoning from Household Cleaning Products Poisoning. Although long term injury is rare, the anxiety and distress caused to both child and parents could be avoided by increased awareness.
The group of children most at risk are the under fives and of these children aged one to three are at most risk. There are on average 15 children aged under 5 admitted to hospital daily in the UK due to sudden poisoning. Children from poor families are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital due to an accident, including accidental poisoning.
So why young children are more likely to be poisoned?
Exploring is part of growing up but young children have little concept of potential dangers. They are inquisitive and will often put things in their mouth to further explore their texture and taste. Part of growing up is to watch and copy what other do, unfortunately this includes copying using potentially dangerous things like household products and medication. Also, small children may mistake liquid capsule style dishwasher and washing machine detergents for toys or sweets. These are not only a danger in relation to ingestion but can also cause serious irritation to the eyes which can result in long term damage.
Symptoms associated with serious poisoning include:
- Being sick
- Abdominal pain
- Drowsiness or reduced levels of consciousness
- Breathing difficulties
- Seizures.
If you think someone has swallowed poison:
- Get medical help immediately
- Do not let the child drink anything
- Do not make the child sick this can cause more damage
- If you know what has been taken keep a sample to show to the medical services
- If it they appear to be unconscious, try to wake them and encourage them to spit out any pills
- When a child’s lips are burned by corrosive substances, frequent sips of cold water or milk may be given
- Residual chemicals on the skin should be rinsed away with copious amounts of water.
Medical staff will need to take a detailed history to effectively treat a person who has been poisoned.
When the paramedics arrive or when you arrive at an emergency department, give them as much information as you can, including:
- What substances you think the person may have swallowed
- When the substance was taken (how long ago)
- Why the substance was taken – whether it was an accident or deliberate
- How it was taken (for example, swallowed)
- How much was taken (if you know)
- Give details of any symptoms that the person has had, such as whether they have been sick.
How can accidents with household cleaning products be prevented?
- Closely supervise children in and around the home
- Keep household chemicals out of sight and reach of children, preferably in a locked cupboard. Remember this also applies to the garage and shed
- Always store household cleaning chemicals in their original containers
- Replace lids and put all products away immediately after use
- Dispose of unwanted household cleaning products safely
- Store household cleaning products in a different place from food and medicine
- Use household cleaning products according to label directionsA
- Mixing household products can cause dangerous gases to form.
What else can you do as a parent? Well, Teesside First Aid offer a variety of courses for teaching first aid about children and babies. We have our Paediatric First Aid course (that meets Ofsted requirements), we have our Grand/Parent First Aid course or our Paediatric First Aid for Nannies and Au Pairs to choose from.
Original article written by ProTrainings EU – http://www.propaediatric.co.uk/en/articles/household-cleaning-products-poisoning
Whilst we are on the subject of First Aid and children did you know that ProTrainings EU can offer FREE, yess FREE, first aid courses for school children?
Student First Aid is designed to teach first aid to secondary school students throughout the UK while overcoming the time and cost obstacles with which schools are often faced.
This is done by replacing the conventional classroom-based first aid course with a video-based e-learning course. This makes the programme free to the school and more flexible to implement. Students can learn first aid from home or from a computer lab, allowing them to learn at their own pace and also teaching them valuable computer skills.
Each school then has the option to add a hands-on component, in which the student’s cognitive knowledge is evaluated on a manikin by a trained skill evaluator.
Teachers are provided an online dashboard to monitor the students’ progress.
They can also view completion and test scores and even order cards all from a single online dashboard.
Training of skill evaluators, training on the system, and follow-up service are all included so that implementation is fast and easy. We may also be able to send in one of our national instructors to your school at no cost. This programme is completely free. The only possible expense results from the addition of the hands-on component. More details are available in the Blended Course Implementation section.
The UK Resuscitation Council, ERC and many charities are campaigning to have first aid taught in schools. Most schools have reacted the same way: “Great idea, but who’s going to pay for it?”
We agree that these organisations are on to something. Interviews with emergency medical professionals indicate that children are sometimes the most proactive and effective lay first aiders. In a recent news article, 9-year-old Tristan saved his sister’s life after she fell into a pool and was pulled out not breathing. He snapped into action and revived her using CPR he learned from a movie on television. By offering a free first aid programme for schools, ProTrainings have made this goal a reality.
Secondary school students are prime candidates for performing CPR because they still have the general boldness of young children while being strong enough to perform compressions. Studies have shown that 83% of secondary-schoolers are very willing to provide bystander CPR. 86% of these students support mandatory CPR training in secondary school.