More than 2,000 kids ended up in AZ emergency rooms from accidental poisoning last year. Kids 5 and younger had the highest rates of non-fatal ER visits from accidental poisoning. Nationally, more than 60,000 young children end up in emergency rooms because they got into medicines while their parent or caregiver wasn’t looking. The new Up and Away and Out of Sight educational program was created to remind families of the importance of safe medicine storage.
Up and Away and Out of Sight outlines six simple things parents and caregivers can do to help keep kids safe through proper medicine storage. For more information about what you can do to prevent accidental poisoning, please visit www.poisonhelp.hrsa.gov and check out winter prevention tips. Arizona has two Poison Control Centers that can be accessed through the national Poison Help number: 800-222-1222. Add this number into your cell phone so it’s easy to find if and when you need it (I used it once when I found one of my kids licking a chlorine pool tablet).
