Stay on your guard about the risks of poisoning at home 

"From pain-relief medication to liquid detergent capsules and reed diffusers, everyday products can seriously damage your child's health"

Pic: iStock

It can happen so quickly. You take your eyes off your toddler for an instant and, when you turn around, he is grasping a bottle of cough syrup. Somehow it is open, spilt all down his top and — most panic-inducing — his mouth is stained.

Last year, the National Poisons Information Centre (NPIC) received 6,374 enquiries about poisonings in children under 16 years. The NPIC 2021 annual report found almost 60% of poisoning enquiries involved children aged 14 years and younger – an 8% reduction in such queries compared to the previous year.

“Fifty per cent of calls are about under-fives — most in the one-to-two-year age group,” says Dr Edel Duggan, NPIC clinical director and consultant anaesthetist at Beaumont Hospital. Most commonly, child-related calls about accidental poisoning involve medication. “Most of these would be paracetamol or Calpol – the child has taken a drink of it or an extra dose has been given, where one parent gave a dose, not realising the other had done so an hour before.”

The next most common call is about household products, especially liquid detergent capsules.

“When these come in contact with water they dissolve and can splash into the eye. Or a child picks one up, their hand’s wet, it starts dissolving and they put it in their mouth.”

A top 10 list of agents involved in accidental poisoning in under 16s has paracetamol in prime position, accounting for 20% of calls, followed by ibuprofen at 10%. The other agents in the top 10 group are fabric cleaning liquid sachet/capsules, multivitamins, detergent, hand cleanser/sanitiser, cough syrup, air freshener reed diffuser, toy/novelty and disinfectant/antiseptic.

“Children are explorative. When one of my children was small, there was Sudocrem in the back of the car and they took a mouthful,” says Dr Duggan.

Confirming that about one in five child-related calls to the NPIC are referred to hospital, she explains: “It depends on the agent. If it’s of low toxicity, the parent’s advised to observe the child at home, go to their GP if there are any problems. But sometimes, because of what the agent is or if we don’t know how much has been taken — if there’s any doubt — we send them to hospital.”

Fatalities are rare, she says. “We haven’t had any in the under-fives in the last few years.”

Dr Edel Duggan

Read the label

Parents are usually — and naturally — panicked when they phone the NPIC helpline. “If a parent doesn’t know how much has been taken, or how toxic the agent is, it can be very upsetting,” says Dr Duggan, who emphasises the importance of staying calm if you suspect your child has ingested/come in contact with a toxic or troubling substance.

“Take the poison away from your child. If it has been eaten, get him or her to spit out any remaining pieces. Never get your child to vomit — it can do more damage coming up, for example, it can go into the lungs and cause problems. If it’s in the eye or on the skin, wash for 15 minutes with clear water,” advises Dr Duggan, who urges parents to always ring the NPIC if they’re in any doubt about what their child has taken — and to bring the product to the phone with them.

“Our staff handle calls in a sensitive manner. We ask questions to determine what the product is and if a dangerous amount has been taken. We ask the child’s age and weight, what symptoms they’re showing, if they’ve any existing medical problems, when the poisoning occurred, what information is on the container and what the product’s used for.”

In 2021, the NPIC noted a rise in calls about reed diffusers, which they describe as “items that can cause toxicity if ingested, or with skin or eye exposures”.

Dr Duggan explains that the problem is the contents of the liquid–glycol ethers (a form of alcohol) and sometimes essential oils. If ingested, she says, they can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea. “Depending on what’s in it, it can cause more serious problems — drowsiness, seizures, or it can affect the kidney and liver.”

The Health Safety Authority (HSA) recently undertook an extensive campaign around reed diffusers on the Irish market to check their compliance with labelling and packaging requirements, as well as the presence of banned substances. Subsequently, the HSA urged consumers “to read the hazard label of such products before they buy to ensure they’re aware of the hazards – and the safety measures to take before placing them in the home”.

Keep household chemicals away from children. Pic: iStock

So what are the dos and don’ts of protecting your child from accidental poisoning at home? Dr Duggan says:

• Use containers with child-resistant caps – but remember ‘child-resistant’ is not ‘child-proof’. If a child has enough time, they may open it.
• Keep medications and chemicals out of reach and sight of children.
• Use child-proof locks on cupboards, and keep all products in their original containers.
• If buying a plant, check out high and low-toxicity plants on exa.mn/poison-check
• Never transfer a product from original container to a soft drinks container.
• Don’t take labels off medicine, or other household products.
• Parents/grandparents shouldn’t take medication in front of children – they often copy adult actions. And never refer to medication as ‘sweets for adults’.
• Don’t leave medication open, put the lid back on, and store out of reach.

Diffuser difficulties

It was her daughter’s silence that made Margaret McAuliffe check on the 21-month-old toddler back in February. “I was packing for an overnight trip, and Marlowe was coming in and out of the room. My husband, Rowan, was in the living room. When I didn’t hear Marlowe babbling away, or playing with Rowan, I went to check on her,” recalls the Dublin mum who found her daughter happily standing in her grandmother’s bedroom, but clutching a tiny refill bottle of reed diffuser, about one-third full.

“I asked my mother how much was in the bottle and she didn’t know —it had been tucked away behind a curtain on a low windowsill and she hadn’t paid any mind to it before.

“I panicked. I brought Marlowe into the kitchen, gave her some water and checked around her mouth for any signs of how much she’d taken. I couldn’t quite work it out. The only clue I had was how strong her breath smelt — she smelt very strongly of the stuff. I was sure she’d ingested some.”

Being so young, Marlowe wasn’t able to communicate how much, if any, of the reed diffuser she had taken. “She wasn’t upset or in pain. She just seemed confused that we were fussing around her – getting her to drink, looking in her mouth, at her tongue, her body for rashes.”

Margaret rang the NPIC phone number and spoke with “the lovely and very reassuring Nicola”, who advised bringing Marlowe to Temple Street Hospital to be fully checked out and observed for any changes as time went on.

“The hospital’s concern was that it would make her sort of drunk – sluggish, tired, out of sorts. We were let go home a couple of hours later because she hadn’t displayed any symptoms.”

The incident was a wake-up call, Margaret says.

“Something like this can happen so easily, so quickly. Between her ingesting the reed diffuser and my discovering it was about a minute or so. So much changed in that time — my anxiety levels, the anxiety levels of the family unit.

“It made us look at everything Marlowe can reach and what we can do to further toddler-proof our home. It’s about really trying to stay on top of what height she is now — can she open that handle now?”

Margaret can’t praise the NPIC enough. “To have someone answer the phone when you’re in panic and to hear the calm, knowledgeable voice at the end of the line made all the difference to us that day.”

It is so reassuring, she says, to know that help is only a phone call away.

• Bord Bia Bloom: June 1-5 in the Phoenix Park. Among health gardens featured is the ‘Know, Act, Prevent Garden’ by NPIC in collaboration with the HSA – it will showcase dangers of toxic agents found in our homes/gardens.
• Public Poisons Information Line (01 809 2166), open seven days a week, 8am-10pm, can rapidly advise if you need to seek urgent medical attention for your child.