Through the respiratory tract, skin, digestive system, toxic substances can enter the human body.
Poisonous substances are divided into 3 groups
1 group - very dangerous compounds: animal poisons, toxic gases, household chemicals, agricultural products, mushrooms and plants, industrial poisons.
2 group - dangerous compounds: conditionally poisonous plants, conditionally edible mushrooms. Alcohol, medicinal substances.
3 group - conditionally dangerous compounds: edible fungi, non-poisonous plants. Conventional non-poisonous compounds can acquire toxicity, if the rules of cooking or storage are violated, when plants grow on waste-contaminated land, if they are improperly treated with pesticides. This group can include fungi, which can accumulate toxic substances.
Where and how can a child get poisoned?
Through the digestive system, if you accept:
- poisonous berries and mushrooms,
- vegetables, fruits, plants that are treated with insecticides, and not completely removed, before they are used for food,
- spoiled, poor-quality food or water, as the toxins of staphylococci in spoiled food are resistant to heat treatment,
- medicines that are stored in an accessible place for the child,
- narcotic substances and alcohol,
- means of household chemicals, for example, for washing dishes, fertilizers, poisons from insects and rodents,
- vinegar essence in the kitchen, gasoline in the garage,
- a drug that penetrates into the mother's milk, when she feeds the baby,
- cosmetics - creams, lipsticks, shampoos.
If the child inhales through the respiratory tract:
- evaporation of poisonous plants,
- solvents, paints, varnishes, acetone, kerosene, gasoline and other evaporating substances,
- carbon monoxide.
Through the skin, after contact:
- children's ointments, with their great use,
- dangerous dyes,
- fertilizers, industrial and agricultural poisons.
The first signs of poisoning
Pain in the abdomen, diarrhea, vomiting, these are not mandatory signs of poisoning. If the cause of a malaise is poisoning, then parents without special knowledge and do not suspect what the reason for the ill-health of a sick child. You need to know all the possible symptoms of poisoning, so that among other ailments you should be able to recognize the poisoning in time and help the child.
Poisoning with poor-quality water, stale food have characteristic symptoms: vomiting, nausea, diarrhea without blood, abdominal pain, child's refusal to eat, lethargy, weakness.
Serious symptoms suggest possible poisoning:
- altered, rapid breathing, possible holding of breath,
- increase and then lowering of blood pressure,
- a weak pulse, a violation of the rhythm of the heart,
- inhibition or excessive excitement,
- cyanosis and pallor of the skin,
- violation of coordination of movements,
- loss of consciousness, cramps,
- hallucinations, drowsiness, inhibition.
First aid for poisoning
If there are suspicions of poisoning, the following actions should be taken:
- Call an ambulance, after the brigade has left for you, you can get a telephone consultation with a doctor,
- The child needs to provide a comfortable position, to lay and constantly look after him before the arrival of doctors.
- if the child has vomiting, it needs to be put or put on his knees head down, it is preferable to put the pelvis, so that you can determine the vomiting toxins.
- If the child is unconscious, it must be placed on its side. Wrap your finger with a handkerchief and clean your mouth of the vomit, watch out for nausea that does not interfere with breathing.
Try to find out what the cause of the poisoning is, if the child can explain, ask the child about it, examine his face, clothes, body for skin burns, redness, spots and specific smells.
Examine the dangerous places of your house, a storage room with household chemicals, a first aid kit, cosmetics.
Observe the child, for those changes that occur with him, so you can establish the causes of poisoning.
Different drugs can cause different symptoms, and vomiting may or may not be.
Wait for the doctor, and do not self-medicate. If the ambulance can not arrive quickly, call and get advice from a toxicologist and pediatrician, and follow their advice.
If a child is poisoned with food
If the child is conscious, then the first aid will be gastric lavage and subsequent copious drinking. It is produced 2 to 5 times.
When food poisoning, which is accompanied by diarrhea, with abundant vomiting, you need to give the baby a drink throughout the illness of "Regidron", a child's glucose-saline solution. The frequency of reception and dosage will be determined by the doctor.
The diet should be sparing half of the usual volume, feeding often, but in small portions. Food should be liquid, puree, mashed potatoes on water, viscous cereal, steam vegetables, vegetable broths, then fish and lean meat.
Diagnosis can be made only by a doctor. And if your child has vomiting, abdominal pain, high fever, and not just diarrhea, you need to urgently call a doctor to exclude dangerous diseases and appendicitis.
If the child is poisoned by chemical substances
If poisoning occurs through the esophagus with caustic substances, do not induce vomiting, if the fluid passes repeatedly, it will make breathing difficult and cause tissue burns.
You need to call an ambulance. When poisoning with alkalis or acids, give the child to drink vegetable oil: up to 3 years you need to drink 1 teaspoon, up to 7 years - drink a dessert spoon, and if the child is older than 7 years, then give 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
If the poisoning has occurred through the skin. You need to take off your clothes and wash your whole body with warm water and soapy water.
If the mucous eye is affected, it is washed with a mild tea solution from the syringe or warm water. You need to rinse your mouth, rinse your nose, give your little mouth and nose a gauze swab moistened with warm water.
If the child is inhaled by evaporation from the liquid to remove lacquer, acetone, carbon monoxide and so on, it must be taken out or taken to fresh air, when changing consciousness and the appearance of a cough, urgently need to call an ambulance.
If the child is poisoned by poisonous berries, mushrooms, plants
You need to call an ambulance, find out from the child what he ate, store the leftovers, if any, for toxicologists, try to induce vomiting, then give an enterosorbent.
To some poisonous plants - cowworm or buttercup, it is impossible not to touch, even not to smell, it causes irritation of mucous membranes before burns, and can cause different consequences.
If the child collected a bouquet, then rubbed his eyes or when he wanted to rip the plant, the juice splashed onto the skin, you need to act as if poisoning with chemicals. Burns from hogwash should be washed, then lubricated with a drug and for several days you need to protect the skin from the sun.
If the child is poisoned with drugs
This type of poisoning is very common in poisoning statistics and is very dangerous. Drugs are often forgotten, they are dropped, lost, are in the public domain. It is not always possible to find out in what quantity, and what medicines the child has poisoned. Therefore, when you suspect that the child has been poisoned with medicines, urgently call the doctors, and then act, as well as with other types of poisoning. Observe the child, for his breathing, consciousness, try to induce vomiting, give abundant drink.
When can not induce vomiting?
Do not induce vomiting during poisoning with some toilet cleansers, ammonia, bleach, acetic essence, strong acids, alkalis, polish for the machine or furniture, turpentine, kerosene, gasoline.
Do not induce vomiting in unconscious children, and when you do not know at all about what your child might have poisoned, and there are no signs that indicate a possible cause. In all such cases, rinsing should be done by doctors using a probe that can neutralize harmful substances, so promptly call for an ambulance.
What not to do with poisoning
- Do not give the child medication without prescribing a doctor, and self-medicate. Pain in the abdomen should not be given painkillers. Maybe the pain is associated with such a serious illness as appendicitis. The removal of anesthesia will complicate the diagnosis.
- You can not cool or warm a sore spot without prescribing a doctor.
- It is impossible without a doctor's advice to give the child antidotes.
- Forget about yourself. If your child is poisoned with volatile or chemical substances, then you need to protect yourself before helping him, namely open the windows, put on gloves and so on. This is not a manifestation of selfishness, but caring for a child, if you suffer, then who will help the child?
If the child had vomiting, why call a doctor?
Vomiting with a number of poisonings is only a primary symptom, and not a sign that the baby's body got rid of the poison. More formidable poisons can manifest much later and suddenly, their latent period can be from 15 to 20 hours.
If the doctor does not call the first symptoms, then the treatment will not be started in time and will require long and serious measures. When poisoning is better to call a doctor than not to do so.
Call a doctor when:
- when a toxic substance is unknown,
- when the child's condition worsens,
- the child has a strong dehydration,
- violation of breathing, changes the size of the pupils, changes the pulse, there is a strong muscle weakness,
- diarrhea with an admixture of blood,
- the body temperature increases,
- A very small child.
In the home medicine cabinet should be:
- "Regidron" or children's glucose-saline solution,
- manganese,
- Activated carbon,
- Smecta,
- preparations such as "Hilak and" Bactisubtil "- restore the intestinal microflora after the disease.
Prevention of poisoning
You can not everywhere "bed straw", but in our power to minimize the possibility of childhood poisoning. What do I need to do?
In the kitchen
- Carefully process the fruit and vegetables with boiling water, or peel them off, store food in the refrigerator, watch for the shelf life of the products, eat, cook and store food in accordance with sanitary standards,
- do not eat "green" potatoes for children, it contains solanine, mushrooms are not recommended for children under 3 or 5 years old, do not eat foods because of improper storage.
- not to eat, not to collect, not to grow mushrooms, berries, fruits that grow near roads or in soil contaminated with pesticides,
- do not buy fruit, berries, mushrooms are not factory-made,
- Children do not have street fast food, most of it is prepared without compliance with sanitary norms, you need to eat food in public places checked. When you starve, buy products sealed tightly. And although the chocolate bar is less useful than the apple, but the unwashed apple can do more harm.
At home
- to have at hand an emergency telephone, a toxicological center, the necessary medicines.
- to teach the child to call in the ambulance, together learn the phone and address,
- hold a game with children that you can not take, try. To teach that you can not play in a store, a pharmacy, a hospital, repair by means of household chemicals, adult medications, paints, varnishes and so on,
- keep all dangerous substances out of the reach of children, never for a minute leave children alone with such substances,
- buy games and toys from well-known manufacturers, then there will be more guarantees that they will not be toxic.
Outdoors
- do not leave children unattended,
- To study with children the types of poisonous and dangerous plants, berries, mushrooms, to teach children that it is impossible to try unfamiliar plants, and it is better to try them after the approval of adults.
Now we know how to provide first aid for poisoning in children. You need to be careful not to hope for "maybe" and then the childhood of your daughters and sons will be calm and prosperous.