It's a full-time job keeping an eye on a toddler. Children learn by touching, feeling and even putting things in their mouths.
Unfortunately, children don't know what's poisonous and what's not. Every year, thousands of children accidentally ingest toxic chemicals from everyday household items. Many of them don't survive.
Holly Stegall quizzes her son Samuel, 4, on the dangers of chemicals and where to call for help. Stegall keeps cleaning chemicals in one place under the kitchen sink and secures the cabinet with childproof latches.
National Poison Prevention Week March 18-24 aims to raise awareness of what can be done to avoid accidental poisonings.
Debra Allen-Barnes, a Lawrence Memorial Hospital pharmacist, says parents need to be aware of their child's access to cleaning solutions, medications, cosmetics and even many household plants. It only takes a tablet or a drink of a potentially harmful substance to do a great deal of damage, she says.
"Heart medications especially can be very, very dangerous to children because they are very small," she says. "We base most of those things on adult dosage, so a tablet can be very potentially dangerous to a child."
Allen-Barnes says children between the ages of 1 and 3 are at the highest risk of accidental poisoning.
"When you tell them no, that doesn't always seem to stick," she says.
Holly Stegall knows this firsthand. She's a mother of three, and has thoroughly poison-proofed her home.
"With my first child that was really on my mind," Stegall says. "We had to do everything put locks under the sinks and in the bathrooms, and in the garage get all the chemicals up just keep things out of reach."
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Allen-Barnes says parents and caretakers should watch what's being thrown in the trash.
"Many people now use topical patches and when they dispose of those, they can dispose of them right in the trash," she says. "That's a danger for a child if they pick it up, because they can actually absorb that medication through their skin."
The garage is another area where chemicals, such as insecticides and herbicides, are often left out in the open.
"Some of the things that you don't think about are perhaps the things in the garage, where you don't really think the child is going to be for any length of time," Allen-Barnes says. "People tend to store things in containers that they were not originally in.
"People will use them in glass jars that may have originally held mayonnaise or something edible and the child may see a container that, to them, represents a food."
Parents also need to remind grandparents and caregivers of potential hazards.
"When grandchildren come to visit, you've gotten past that stage where you have young children in the house and you're no longer thinking of taking and keeping things up out of their reach," Allen-Barnes says. "Many individuals who are arthritic no longer have childproof containers because it's difficult for them to open those items."
Stegall says she talks about safety with her baby sitters before she leaves the house.
"I just make sure that any of my sitters are knowledgeable in that area," she says. "I take the initiative of maybe they don't know so I need to square it away before they're in charge."
6News reporter Kim Hall can be reached at 832-6326.
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