Accidental poisonings kill more than 45,000 children each year. Children under 5 years of age make up the majority of this number. While you can teach an older child that chemicals and medications are very dangerous and should not be played with, you cannot trust a younger child to stay away from them. Young children are very explorative and always investigating the world around them. They can get into places that you may not have even thought of looking in for years. They play with anything they can find and usually place it into their mouths at some point.

They can usually only get into things that are at their own height, such as cabinets and drawers low to the ground. These areas usually contain household cleaning chemicals, which are very dangerous and deadly to not only children but also adults. These items must be locked up when a child is present in the household; this also goes the same for medications or anything that might cause harm to a child.

It might sound funny, but the best way to childproof your home is to crawl around at your child’s level to see what they can get into and then correcting the problems. Keep an eye out for any chemicals or cleaners that they can get a hold of and move them to a higher cabinet or an area of the house they cant get to.

A largely overlooked source of accidental poisoning is houseplants. Before purchasing a plant for your home you should research the toxicity level of them and if deciding to buy them they should be kept very high off the ground and away from children’s reach.

If you or someone you know has suffered injury due to poisoning, contact our Ohio child injury attorneys at 1.800.637.8170 for your free copy of Little Kids, Big Accidents.