How to keep your children safe from poisons in the home

Margaret Jennings says almost 5,000 children under the age of 10 ingested a poison in the home last year — usually either a medicine or household cleaning product.

It’s Christmas Day, Santa has visited and your child is totally absorbed in the colourful squidgy toy — squeezing it, biting it, bringing a curiosity to this new item in its hands.

Except it’s not a toy, nor a sweet — it’s a liquid detergent pod, which perhaps was left lying around, in all the hustle and bustle of the festive season, ready for the next cycle of numerous dishes that need to get washed.