Host: How should I respond if my child has ingested a poisonous substance?

Robin Vick: First of all, poisoning is a potential disaster that a family can experience. Curious, inquisitive children can ingest harmful liquids, medications that really present potentially lethal conditions, if not managed very, very quickly. The recommended situation process is for a parent, remember we talked about keeping that poison control number upon the refrigerator? Immediately call 911 and then the poison control center. While 911 is having the emergency team paged, the poison control center will tell what you can do to help to begin that treatment at home. Never, ever assume that you know what to do in a poisoning situation. Always rely on what the poison control center tells you. There are many circumstances that require very specific management and a parent can never determine what products require what interventions. Get the advice of the poison control center. One thing that you can have on an emergency basis is syrup of ipecac. It can be purchased in the pharmacy and you should have that in your emergency cupboard, but never administer syrup of ipecac unless, the poison control center says to do it. Much more trauma to the child can occur if vomiting is induced. That's what syrup of ipecac does. It irritates inside of the stomach and promotes vomiting so that, that substance is vomited up. There are many types of solutions though and products that will cause more trouble and more harm to the child by vomiting than it would to leave it in the stomach and retrieved in the ER. So never act without guidance from the poison control center. To watch the other segments in this video series or for How to videos on almost any other topic, visit monkeysee.

com.