This is what we read on all detergents, spray cleaners, bleaches, etc. and we do our best to follow these simple rules, because we very well know that spray cleaners and preschoolers indeed don’t make a very good match. Curiosity killed the cat and has surely harmed a lot of kids.
In fact, despite all the warnings, 10 000 kids end up in emergency rooms on a yearly basis exactly because they find a way to get to one of those. It’s good news that the number of these cases has gone down. According to U.S. News, “the number of children ages 5 and younger who landed in emergency rooms because of injuries caused by household cleaning products dropped by 46 percent from 1990 to 2006″.
It seems that spray cleaners are causing most damage, which may be explained by the fact that more and more detergents are packaged this way and that a preschooler may easily be attracted to them. It’s not so much the opening, as it is spraying into someone else’s eye that causes injuries.
So what do you do to keep your kid out of harm’s way? Well, here’s a few tips:
- Store cleaning products in a place where young children can’t see or touch them. Earlier studies have shown that even though parents think they are complying with recommendations that poisons be stored in locked cabinets, almost no families follow the advice in real life.
- Be aware that spray bottles pose a particular hazard, especially when chemicals are sprayed on a child’s face or eyes. Even seemingly benign substances like detergents can cause serious eye injury.
- Buy products with child-resistant packaging, and don’t put cleaning products in other containers. Some children are poisoned because adults put hazardous products in sports drink bottles, for example.