March 18 – 24, 2012 was National Poison Prevention Week. I happened to catch an article online warning Grandparents about how many calls Poison Control Centers get everyday with possible poisonings from Grandparents medication.

In 201o close to 4 million calls were made to centers around the country. In children about 40% of poisonings were from medications and the other 60% were household products. Poisoning is the 4th leading cause of death among children.

http://www.aapcc.org/ is a site with lots of good information to prevent that from happening.  I will have my own grandson here soon so now is a good time to declutter and organize not only the medicines around the house but cleaning supplies as well.

Understand How to Deal with Poisons… Call Poison Control

My family has first hand experience when it comes to poisoning. In 1966 my little sister was in a neighbors garage  and swallowed  pool acid. One of the neighbor boys saw a coke bottle that had been filled with pool acid and handed it to her.

They said before giving IPECAC, call a poison control center.

The acid burnt her throat, mouth and baby teeth, not when she swallowed it but when she threw it up.

She survived but has had problems as a result of that accident.  We made hundreds of trips through out the years to and from the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.  First we were told she would not survive, but she did.  Then we were told she would not ever be able to talk, but believe me, she can talk.

Take Action

So now is the time to organize your medicines and cleaning supplies.

Let’s start with expiration dates. Most of our houses end up with all sorts of half used medicines. Gather old medicines and take them to your local pharmacy.

Keep the medicines you use in their correct bottles. We think we will remember but sometimes we don’t.

Keep out of reach for children!

Last time my grandson was here he saw my husbands blue shiny cough drops by the side of the bed and could not resist. Crawl around like a 2 year old and see what they see.

Cleansers and Detergents

It’s amazing how many bottles we have under every sink.  The pink, yellow and blue liquids in those bottles look a lot like kool-aid. If you have kids around remember there are so many options out there that are safe. Even if they are safe it is a good practice to keep up high. You really don’t want baking soda all over your carpet, do you?

Spring is a good time to get rid of old medicines and cleaning supplies.

Cleaning and organizing could save someones life this year!