Child Injuries Caused by Accidental Poisonings are on the Rise
When we think about child injury risks, many of us consider issues like child car seat safety, auto accident risks, accidental drowning incidents, suffocation, and pedestrian or bicyclist injuries. One of the more common and completely preventable types of child injury involves accidental poisoning. According to a new report from Safe Kids Worldwide, a child under the age of 6 suffers a serious accidental poisoning that requires a trip to the emergency department every nine minutes. Every hour, on average, a child requires hospitalization as a result of an unintentional poisoning incident. If your child has experienced an injury from an accidental poisoning or other product, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a child injury lawyer today to discuss your case.
Why are so many kids suffering injuries as a result of accidental poisonings? According to Dr. Dina Burstein, a physician at the Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital, many dangerous materials simply are too enticing to young children, and they are not properly stored out of a child’s reach. As Burstein clarified of these objects, “they all look pretty similar and I think they’d all look pretty delicious and enticing to a young child.” What kinds of dangerous objects is she referring to? Most often, a personal injury accident involving accidental child poisonings occurs when a child eats a gummy vitamin or gummy sleep aid product (which often looks very similar to a gummy candy), or when a child consumes a decongestant tablet (which frequently looks like a candy product).
Young kids under the age of 6 are curious, and if dangerous materials are not kept well out of their reach, those materials could be ingested and could prove to be fatal. One of the major problems is that parents assume “child-proof bottles” are actually childproof, and that they can keep medications and other pills around their kids as long as they are housed in one of these containers. However, this is simply not the case, and can often result in a serious personal injury accident. Burstein emphasizes: “I don’t know if there’s anything that’s really considered 100 percent child proof.” She notes that “kids are pretty clever,” and she underscores how parents need to “assume nothing is child proof and given enough time, a child can get into it.” In some instances, these injuries can be caused by another party’s negligence. If you believe this is the circumstance that caused your child’s injury, contact a child injury attorney immediately.
Another major factor in accidental poisonings involves parents relocating household cleaners and other chemicals to empty soda bottles or other containers that used to contain food. Young children simply cannot tell the difference. In the past, child injuries from household products have occurred particularly with laundry detergent pods. This is just one of many examples that can harm a child.
Safety Tips to Prevent Accidental Poisonings and Child Injuries
A tip sheet from Safe Kids Worldwide recommends the following poison prevention tips to prevent child injuries:
- Keep all potentially hazardous materials out of the reach of children, and never leave any chemicals or medicines unattended;
- Do not keep dangerous products in your purse because your child can get into them;
- Buy child-resistant packaging and containers whenever they are available, but do not automatically assume that these containers are sufficient to keep your child out;
- Keep medicines high up and away from any area where a child can reach;
- Keep the phone number for the poison control center in your cell phone in case you need quick information; and
- Install a carbon monoxide alarm in your house to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
If your child suffered an accidental poisoning injury because of another party’s negligence, you should learn more about filing a claim by speaking with a child injury attorney.
