Children notoriously get into everything. The reality is that Florida ranks seventh in the country for children being exposed to poisons, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. With a few small changes, it's easy to child-proof your home and keep dangerous products out of little hands.
One of the simplest places to start is literally on your hands and knees.
Debi Gerbert, a pediatric physician assistant with Wolfson Children's Hospital and Nemours Children's Clinic says, “get down to the level of a 2-year-old or that toddler age that likes to get into everything, but literally get down on practically your hands and knees and see what they see because it’s not the same thing you see from five or six feet up.”
Dangerous items placed under the sink, like cleaning products, should be moved to high cabinets.
It's not just parents that need to learn these safety tips. Any caregiver or even older siblings should practice safe storage of hazardous products.
“We have to teach them what things are dangerous and then how to put them out of the reach of children,” says Gerbert.
Cleaning products, laundry detergents, batteries and medications are some of the most common items children accidentally ingest. They don't always come from the cabinet.
“That’s happened many times where a 12-year-old sister was responsible for taking her own medication and accidentally dropped it and didn’t think about the fact that she has a 2-year-old brother that then ingested it,” Gerbert said.
Another pro-tip is to keep products in original packaging. It might look nice to put your detergent pods in glass apothecary jars, but toddlers will be more enticed to grab them.
“Children don’t know it’s something to stay away from if it’s decorative and pretty,” says Gerbert.
Another tip is to add the local poison control number to your phone in case of an emergency.
That number is 800-222-1222.
The American Cleaning Institute is working with the Physician Assistant Foundation to help lead the nationwide effort to educate parents and caregivers to reduce potential poison exposures with the Packets Up! campaign.
For more information, visit PacketsUp.com.