Check your home for any of the following substances that a child could reach and swallow:

• Medicines (Prescribed medication, Headache tablets, Vitamins)
• Pesticides or insecticides
• Detergents and cleaning agents (Oven cleaners, Dish washing machine detergent, Bleach)

Think about the following strategies for dealing with poison hazards for children:

• Lock away all poisons when not in use. When using them, close the container immediately and place it up high as a temporary safeguard.
• Know what poisons you have. Check the containers if you're not sure whether they're posionous.
• Keep poisons in their original containers. Never transfer a poison to another container.
• Remember your headache tablets and vitamin pills can be dangerous to children. Read all labels carefully.
• Buy enough oven cleaner for a single use, and throw the rest away.
• Choose safer products. Look for products in re-sealable child-resistant containers.
• Use a lockable medicine cupboard in either the bathroom or your bedroom. Contraceptive pills and sleeping tablets should not be left on bedside tables or in drawers.

If a Child Swallows a Poison

If you think a child may have swallowed a posion, take the container with you to the phone and call the Poison Information Center. They will tell you what to do.

Children have been badly burnt by swallowing a small amount of the sludge that sometimes appears inside dishwashing machine doors after use. If you unload the machine only while the child is sleeping, you remove the risk of this happening.

If you live more than 15 minutes away from medical help, keep a bottle of Syrup of Ipecac in your medicine cabinet. Use only as directed by the PoisonInformation Center or your doctor.

REMEMBER: Telling people about a hazard is not sufficient on its own. Somebody must take responsibility to reduce or eliminate it. If nothing else is going to work, you might have to get rid of the hazardous item altogether.

EMERGENCY NUMBERS Make sure you have a list in a prominent place near your phone showing phone numbers services such as;

• Ambulance
• Fire
• Police
• Poison Information Service
• Family doctor
• Neighbor with a car