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what
you
can
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•••
TIMELY
Tips and
Helpful
Suggestions for YOU and YOUR
FAMILY
•
What To Do In Case of Poisoning
The average household
has
at Jeast 40 potential poisons
medications (both externa! and interna!), insecticides,
bleaches, detergents, deaning agents and polishes.
Every parent, guardian or baby sitter should know what
action to take if a child accidentally swallows sorne poisonous
substance. First, ascertain what the poisoning agent is, if pos–
sible. Immediately call the family doctor or the nearest hospi·
tal that has 24-hour emergency facilities. (Have these phone
numbers
tm·itten down
in case of such an emergency.) Then
follow the advice you are given.
Expert help may not be readily available.
In
that case,
while someone else continues to cal! for help, you must begin
emergency first aid measures.
If
there is an antidote given on
the poison's container label, administer it as directed. Be sure
to save the label for the doctor or hospital.
If
no antidote is
given, begin implementing the following first aid procedures
recommended in the American Red Cross
FirJt Aid
Textbook:
l.
Have the victim drink quantities of water
oc
milk.
This will dilute the poison. Although water is the most read·
ily available diluting agent, milk helps protect the digestive
tract lining and slows the absorption of the poison.
2. Induce vomiting in all cases
EXCEPT
when poison·
ing is by the following: Strong acids like bleaches and swim–
ming pool acids; strong alkalis such as lye, plumbing
cleaners, oven cleaners and other caustics; strychnine such as
in certain gopher and rat poisons; kerosene or other petro·
leum products such as gasoline, furniture polishes, oils and
paint thinners.
Telltale signs of these types of poisonings are sudden
iUness, sometimes strong breath or vomitus odor and possible
burns about the lips and mouth. Likewise, do not induce
vomiting if the victim is unconscious, having convulsions or
in a state of exhaustion.
Otherwise, induce vomiting. A baking soda solution,
consisting of severa! teaspoonfuls of baking soda per half
glass water, given with the diluting fluids, will produce vom–
iting. Vomiting can also be induced by depressing the back of
the tongue with your finger
oc
with
a spoon. When doing
this be sure to hold the child with his hips upon your lap and
bis
head slightly lower to prevent inhaling the vomitus.
Besides the
FirJI Aid Textbook
by the American Red
Cross, another worthwhile book covering what to do in case
of poisoning is
The Mother'J Gttide to Child Safety
by
Bry·
son
R.
Kalt and Ralph Bass, published by Grosset
&
Dunlap
in New York. lt's available at your local library,
oc
for one
dollar at a nearby book store or from the publisher.
•
Floor Furnace Burns
Floor furnaces are the leading cause of burns to children
under 5. They account for one out of every five burns to
children under 15. Each year in the United States alone, floor
furnaces cause 30,000 to 60,000 burns that must be medicaUy
treated.
"The temperature at the leve! of the ffoor grate has been
recorded at between 300 and 350 degrees F, the usual tem·
perature for cooking chicken, beef, ham, veal and other
meats," warned Dr. Julian A. Waller, professor at the Uni–
versity of Vermont Medica! School, when reporting on floor
furnace hazards to the National Commission on Product
Safety. Continued Dr. Waller, "The only other heating device
so constructed is the barbeque."
According to a heater manufacturer, there are no avail·
able manufactured protective devices for ffoor furnaces.
Replacing a floor furnace with a better heating system is the
safest measure.
If
you own a fioor furnace and can't afford to replace it,
remember that it's dangerous - especially to little children.
•
A Relationship of Pasteurized
CoWs Milk to Crib Death?
Crib death, sometimes called sudden death syndrome,
sudden infant death, cot death or smothering syndrome,
mysteriously daims the lives of thousands of babies every
year. Estimates run anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 a year.
In Britain alone, three babies die every day from this baffiing
cause. Dr. Daniel Stowens, a pathologist who has done a
great deal of study on sudden infant death, rates crib death as
the tenth most common cause of death of
a/1
persons.
After years of careful investigatíon, doctors are still
unable to find the specific cause of these sudden infant
fatalities.
Though the actual specific cause of crib death is still
undetermined, research points out that there
is
a
poJJible
link
bctween cow's milk formula and crib death. In the 1964-1965
Year Book of PediatricJ,
edited by Sydney S. Gellis, M.O., in
a section reporting on the "Role of Antibody to Cow's Milk
Proteins in sudden Death Syndrome," this condusive state–
ment about crib death was made: "... regardless of the re·
sults of milk protein antibody studies, the infant who dies
suddenly and unexpectedly is one who is receiving cow's milk
formula, whereas
breast-fed babies are
1101
to be found suc–
mmbing in thiJ fashion."
This seems to coincide with a report made by the British
Ministry of Health in 1965, suggesting that cow milk allergy