What lurks in your household?
Tips on keeping poisons out of reach of children
TAMARA BROWNING GateHouse News Service

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - JoAnn Lemaster has learned the wisdom of keeping poisons out of reach.

Years ago, her daughter came across red berries from a Yew bush (an evergreen shrub) while playing outside.

"They're highly poisonous, and she was one-and-a-half and came in with them in a little cup with a neighbor girl," Lemaster said.

"We knew that the berry was poisonous, and we called the poison center. We had to give syrup of ipecac at that time."

The host of poisons around the home call for diligence in home safety.

"From a household perspective, if parents can just lock things up and keep them up high ..." said Lemaster, an Illinois Poison Center Satellite educator based at St. John's Children's Hospital.

A poison is anything that can make you sick or hurt if it gets into the body. The most frequent causes of poisonings are analgesic medicines/ pain relievers; household cleaners such as bleach, window cleaner, dishwasher detergent and cosmetics/ personal care products including makeup, perfume and nail polish remover, according to the Illinois Poison Center.

Avoiding poisonings is all about prevention and common sense:

Analgesic medicines

and pain relievers

The Illinois Poison Center recommends that all products should be kept in original containers with original labels and away from children.

Labels should be read and directions followed during each use. Don't call medicine candy or make a game out of taking it. Out-of-date medicine should be flushed down the toilet and the bottles rinsed out before throwing away. Only the person for whom it was prescribed should take prescription medicine.

Household cleaning

products

The Illinois Poison Center suggests keeping cleaning products out of reach of children (don't forget about your pets, too), avoiding mixing chemicals and rinsing out empty bottles before throwing them away.

Kim Little, founder and president of the parenting resource springfieldmoms. org, has gone beyond that by promoting and using nontoxic cleaners in her household. A television show that told how toxics in commercial cleaners lead to increased asthma in children nationwide prompted her to make a change. "That got me to explore a product line from Shaklee called 'Get Clean,' " said Little, who became a distributor of the biodegradable products.

"I've made a big change in our house of getting rid of all the commercial cleaners and using nontoxic cleaners where my 3- and 5-year-olds can spray the bottles and wipe the counters and wipe the windows and help me clean the floors.

"I don't have to be screaming in the background, 'Don't touch those. Those are chemicals.' "

Personal care products

Keep health and beauty products out of the reach of children and pets.

"Vitamins can be poisonous to young children because of the iron," Lemaster said. "(Including) very trendy vitamins like gummy bears and gummy worms and all of those look like candy, but they're not."

Tamara Browning can be reached at

tamara.browning@sj-r.com.