Most calls to Poison Centers involve kids under the age of 6. Young children are naturally curious and explore their environments by touching and putting things into their mouths. They learn by imitation, their taste buds are immature and they do not understand cause and effect. The following 5 things are in many households and it may surprise you that they can be so harmful.
Nicotine: Toddlers get into cigarettes, ashtrays and chewing tobacco (which can smell like mint, vanilla or cherry) more often than you may think. Effects of nicotine poisoning include vomiting, sweating, lethargy and tremors in mild poisoning and confusion, paralysis, and seizures in severe poisoning. As little as one full cigarette, 3 butts, or one piece of nicotine chewing gum swallowed by a toddler can be toxic.
Lamp Oil: This toxin is an often sweet smelling or colorful liquid found in Tiki torches and decorative oil lamps. If it is ingested and goes straight down the hatch into the stomach and stays there, it is not really a problem. The issue is when it goes down the wrong pipe and gets into the lungs (known as aspiration). The oily slippery substance gets deep down, causing injury to the lungs and interfering with oxygen transfer to the blood. Kids can be drawn to lamp oil because it smells good, looks pretty, or because it is in a bottle resembling a beverage. Symptoms include coughing, gagging and severe trouble breathing.
Table Salt and Baking Soda: There’s a salt shaker on practically every dining table in the country and baking soda is known to be useful for everything from baking cookies, to deodorizing refrigerators to cleaning. Ingesting large amounts of these substances can be dangerous. Table salt is sodium chloride; sodium and chloride are electrolytes that are crucial in the way our bodies function at the cellular level. As little as 1 tablespoon (ingested all at once) can cause seizures in a toddler and 2 tablespoons can be fatal. One tablespoon of baking soda ingested by an infant is enough to significantly change blood pH=bad news.
Muscle Rubs like Bengay®: The active ingredient of many muscle rubs is called methyl salicylate. This chemical is very similar to aspirin. Aspirin poisoning causes symptoms such as ringing in the ears, vomiting, drowsiness, fluid in the lungs, and seizures. One tablespoon of extra strength cream is the equivalent to 19 aspirin tablets or 78 of the low dose/baby aspirin tablets.
Mouthwash: Many mouthwashes contain ethanol, which is the same kind of alcohol that is in beer or wine. Scope® contains 15% alcohol (about the strength of wine) and Listerine ® contains 22% alcohol (about half the strength of vodka or whiskey). If a 25 pound toddler drank just 1 ounce of Listerine®, he or she would be legally drunk and drinking 3-4 ounces is enough to cause major toxicity like low blood sugar or coma. Other household substances that contain ethanol include body splash, perfume, aftershave and hand sanitizer.
