Lucy Piper: Everyone’s house is full of potentially dangerous substances but it can be very difficult for parents to remember just what to do if your child comes into contact with anything poisonous. With me is Clive James from St. John Ambulace and mum Fiona. Now Fiona, hey, had a bit of scare with your son Sam, who swallowed a laundry powder tablet, what happened then?
Fiona Case: One of the personal liquid gel washing powder, touch of packet sashays. And bottle had fallen down behind the bin and he managed to get his hand on and I don’t know who was there, I was on the way to my hospital then I tensed to hear him and coughing, put that capsule in his mouth and just hoping it exploded in his mouth.
Lucy Piper: What did you do? You had some panic?
Fiona Case: I didn’t – I should have panicked but it’s – I didn’t panicked that much but I just -- I actually took him to the sink and rinsed his mouth on a bit of a water and got off his hands and as such I wasn’t really going to do much as because he seemed alright but then I read on the box of the tablets that if you – if there’s anything wrong you have to contact -- seek a medical advise immediately, so I phoned the doctor and she told me to take him down to causality so.
Lucy Piper: So, gladly our little Sam was alright. So if our child just comes into contact with anything poisonous whether it’s touching it or drinking it, is that the right thing to do?
Clive James: Yes, certainly. Anything that’s poisonous, what you did there was exactly right, wash it away, get as much off the poison off as possible. If there’s some on the skin, I did it cold running water and especially if it’s like a chemical, make sure you don’t ram the bottles on the arm, get it to hit the actual chemical take you straight way. And keep account for a minimum of about 22 minutes and then in that time call an ambulance, get the ambulance coming soon, now you know what’s happened and just have no worry but anything poison in, she do wants to be treated in a hospital.
Fiona Case: Then what if you don’t know the source of the poison?
Clive James: Again it’s very, very difficult. In some cases, you don’t know what you dumped in their mouths, it’s the case of you got the concerns, then voice has concerns again NAH help lines that so advise as well. But you know your child anybody than else, if you think there might be something wrong, in my opinion, contact with something. Then again, you know, as I say, there is help line, give them a ring, explain what’s happened, and they will probably advise you to get to a hospital anyway.
Fiona Case: When Sam has this incident I washed his mouth with water but is there any time that you might need to try and make him vomit?
Clive James: No, never introduce vomiting. The vomiting is always a risk to airway, if something is going to come up, it’ll come up naturally. The something – we have crossed chemicals, this time a hemogram blinked for instance, then what we don’t want to do, it burns on the way down when if only it’ll burn on the way up, and that can cause of the airway and close the airway. So, all you’re going to do in a situation like that is, let you can cold sips of water or milk, cold milk because that would help keep the airway cool and stop the swelling coming up. So, if certainly anything look burns on the lips, wash them off out, get as much out as you can as you did. But then if they’ve actually swallowed it in cold sips of milk or water, then get an ambulance straight way, 999, tell them what’s happened.
Fiona Case: And what if he’d inhaled something as oppose to drunk something?
Clive James: Oh, we can do this for sure or get them into fresh air because whatever I didn’t have, there needs to be away from so get them into fresh air, again dial 999 in a situation, don’t worry about the help line, dial 999. Inhaled poison is a very dangerous because it also goes straight into their lungs, it gets straight into their respiratory system. So, this is -- one of the things you done about with get them straight into hospital.
Lucy Piper: What about Clive, an acid burn, would you run them under water?
Clive James: Certainly, again for a minimum of about 20 minutes or more you doing, ring the ambulance, get the ambulance coming, just keep cooling the burn. If the skin is broken, once the burn is being cold, make sure in order that poison is off, then comfort and dressing is exactly the same the things like hand spray, get that kneeling, you needs to bush the eye, and same rules apply. Don’t wash it so it runs over into their eye, keep your running straight way.
Lucy Piper: Yeah.
Clive James: And keep most -- washing the eye with cold water and get an ambulance coming to you straight way.
Lucy Piper: For ambulance. Okay, what about in the garden because all the children playing in the garden, you can’t have your eyes everywhere, things in the garden surely like slug pellets, things like are mostly very poisonous?
Clive James: Yeah, there are lots of pesticides available etcetera. Again as I said early, if you got any doubts, if you don’t know what you’re going to do -- my daughters work forever for anything in their mouth.
Lucy Piper: Eating dirts?
Clive James: Yeah, you know and it’s one of most things, non toxic not a problem but if you got any concerns, make sure you have concerns, there are help lines available, but at the end of the day, hospital is the best place for you.
Lucy Piper: Yeah, don’t take any chances. Thank you very much Clive. Just summarize, you use cold running water to treat any substance that’s cause the burn. If your child swallows a corrosive substance such as bleach, give them some cold milk or water to set. If they’re taking tablets, keep them nice and still and seek urgent medical attention. Also try to take the poisonous substance with you to the hospital.
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