Medication Safe - Dr. Ben Tsutaoka

National Poison Prevention week is March 14-20, 2010.

More than 2 million poisonings are reported each year to the 61 Poison Control Centers across the country. The majority of poisonings occur in the home and involve children younger than 6 years old.

National Poison Prevention Week was established by Congress in 1961 and designated as the third week in March to highlight the dangers of poisoning and how to prevent them.

Great poison prevention tips can be found from the American Academy of Pediatrics, located here: http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/poisonpreventiontips.cfm

The holidays are fast approaching and we encourage people to take a minute to think about preventing poisoning in their children. The holidays are a joyous time when family and friends gather together. It is also a time of year with an increased occurence of poisonings in children. While busily preparing for the holidays, children are more likely to be left unsupervised for a short amount of time. Visiting grandparents, family and friends with medications in their luggage or purse are frequent sources of a poisoning exposure in children. It takes only a short time for a child to get into medications but may lead to a lengthy visit to the Emergency Room.

A few tips to be especially mindful of during the holidays:

Store medications locked out of children’s sight and reach.

Tell grandparents, family and friends about avoiding medication poisoning when they visit or your family visits their homes.

For a great article with general tips about “Keeping kids safer around medicines, poisons” please go here: http://www.forteustiswheel.com/articles/2009/11/24/news/top_stories/top03.txt.

If you think your child has tasted, touched or breathed something harmful, call your local poison control center. Poison Control Centers nationwide are accessed by calling 1-800-222-1222.

We came across an internet site with some recommendations regarding “First Aid for Poisoning”.

The recommendations included:

1. Find the container. Identifying the poison is the first step in selecting the right antidote.

2. Call the nearest doctor, giving him all the details as clearly as possible.

3. Rush the victim to hospital if you are close enough. Take the poison along with you in its original container, so the doctor will know what antidote to use.

4. UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE: Neutralize the poison if you know whtat it is. If you don’t  here is the universal antidote:

• Wood charcoal, 2 parts (burned toast may be substitute)
• Milk of magnesia, 1 part
• Tannic Acid, 1 part (strong tea)
• Gave 1 teasponful of a glass of water.

5. Induce vomiting. Lay the child your kness with his head down, and place your fingers at the back of his throught to induce vomiting. For an older child or adult, give one or two glasses of milk or white of an egg. Use water if nothing else is handy. A teasponful of salt added to the water will increase the tendency to vomit.

Some advice out there, may do more HARM than good. There is little in the above recommendations that we would agree with. If you think your child, yourself, or someone you know, may have touched, tasted or breathed something that may be harmful: DON’T GUESS. BE SURE.

Call your poison control center for advice. Poison Control Centers can be reached by calling 1-800-222-1222.

We came across some great recommendations, regarding childproofing the bathroom for medicines, posted on consumerreports.org from April 2007.

 The full article can be found here: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/resource-center/keeping-baby-safe-404/bathroom/0704_keeping-baby-safe_bathroom.htm?INTKEY=195BSE0

We’ll post the pertinent information here.

Medicines. Keep medicines away from bedside tables and install a lock on the medicine cabinet well out of your child’s reach. You can also store medications in a childproof, locked box kept on a high shelf outside the bathroom. Put vitamin supplements out of reach, too–iron pills and vitamins containing iron are leading child poisoners. Choose child-resistant packaging for prescription and over-the-counter drugs and vitamin supplements. Never keep medicines inside a purse in containers without childproof caps. Store visitors’ handbags out of reach, such as on a high shelf. You never know. They might contain pill bottles without these caps, or small items that could be choking hazards. Discard expired drugs in their child-resistant packaging; don’t just empty the contents in the garbage.

As the holidays are upon us we want to remind you to be acutely aware that many of the calls received by poison control centers during this time are about children getting into medications brought into the home by visiting relatives. This was alluded to in an earlier post and can be loosely termed the “granny syndrome”  (http://medicationsafe.com/2008/07/13/hang-up-your-pocketbook-an-easy-intervention-for-the-granny-syndrome-grandparents-as-a-risk-factor-in-unintentional-pediatric-exposures-to-pharmaceuticals/).

 The following is an excerpt of an article that appeared in the Tucson Citizen and was an interview of one of our colleagues at The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center. The full story can be found here: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/103597.php.

Holidays are for family, friends and feasting, but can be dangerous for festive revelers under 5.

According to the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, pediatric poisoning calls increase almost three-fold on Thanksgiving, Christmas and the days immediately bracketing those holidays.

You can blame some of it on Grandpa.

“We know relatives come to visit over the holidays and grandma and grandpa frequently stay in the kids’ room and their medication is in their suitcase,” said Jude McNally, managing director of the poison center. “I can guarantee we will have several kids admitted to pediatric ICU because of a grandparent’s medication over Thanksgiving. It happens every year.”

We want to encourage you to take a couple of minutes when visitors come to make sure their medications are properly secured. Make sure purses and bags containing medications are out of the reach of young children. This can avert a trip to the Emergency Room or a hospital stay.

Your local poison control center can be accessed by calling 1-800-222-1222.

The first edition of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) new monthly e-newsletter The Safety Review is available online.  The newsletter contains photos and descriptions of recently recalled items, as well as articles about CPSC’s work to protect the consumer. It’s easy to sign up now for this free resource. 

Each year, approximately 2.4 million people - more than half under age 6 - swallow or have contact with a poisonous substance. As poison prevention, and appropriate, immediate treatment to poison contact or ingestion, are critical to keeping your child safe, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has some important tips.

To poison proof your home:

Most poisonings occur when parents or caregivers are home but not paying attention. The most dangerous potential poisons are medicines, cleaning products, antifreeze, windshield wiper fluid, pesticides, furniture polish, gasoline, kerosene and lamp oil. Be especially vigilant when there is a change in routine. Holidays, visits to and from grandparents’ homes, and other special events may bring greater risk of poisoning if the usual safeguards are defeated or not in place.

·  Store medicine, cleaners, paints/varnishes and pesticides in their original packaging in locked cabinets or containers, out of sight and reach of children.

·  Install a safety latch - that locks when you close the door - on child-accessible cabinets containing harmful products.

·  Purchase and keep all medicines in containers with safety caps. Discard unused medication.

·  Never refer to medicine as “candy” or another appealing name.

·  Check the label each time you give a child medicine to ensure proper dosage.

·  Never place poisonous products in food or drink containers.

·  Keep coal, wood or kerosene stoves in safe working order.

·  Maintain working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Treatment

If your child is unconscious, not breathing, or having convulsions or seizures due to poison contact or ingestion, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately. If your child has come in contact with poison, and has mild or no symptoms, call your poison control center at 1-800-222-1222

Different types and methods of poisoning require different, immediate treatment:

·  Swallowed poison - Remove the item from the child, and have the child spit out any remaining substance. Do not make your child vomit. Do not use syrup of ipecac.

·  Skin poison — Remove the child’s clothes and rinse the skin with lukewarm water for at least 15 minutes.

·  Eye poison — Flush the child’s eye by holding the eyelid open and pouring a steady stream of room temperature water into the inner corner.

·  Poisonous fumes - Take the child outside or into fresh air immediately. If the child has stopped breathing, start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and do not stop until the child breathes on his or her own, or until someone can take over.

From the American Academy of Pediatrics, 2/08