All 1,528 child poisonings reported last year could have been prevented by adhering to simple safety rules, the Health Board said Monday.

Mare Oder, director of the Poison Information Center, said that the number of poisonings in young children goes up in summer, when children are often sent to stay with their grandparents or to summer camp.

"Tons of outdoor parties are held as well, where dozens of dangers lurk ranging from a bottle of lighter fluid left open to nicotine pouches that have fallen on the ground – which can cause serious health problems in young children and require urgent medical attention," Oder continued.

According to a 2023 overview by the Poison Information Center, the center fielded 248 cases last year concerning poisonings in babies under 1 year old, and 1,281 cases of suspected poisonings in toddlers and young children between the ages of 1-4. This marked an increase on year from 231 and 1,195 cases, respectively, in 2022.

While many of these cases required only a limited response, including consultations with recommendations to monitor the child, rinse their mouth or give them plenty of fluids, others nonetheless still required emergency medical attention.

"For example, one young child ended up in the hospital with nicotine poisoning," the center director noted. "This kind of poisoning can occur as easily as a child finding a used nicotine pouch spat on the ground that still contains a dangerous amount of nicotine."

Safety caps not enough

The majority of poisonings in young children last year involved chemicals (650 cases) and medications (459 cases).

The center warned that kids can end up ingesting chemicals for any number of reasons, and that safety caps on medication bottles alone aren't enough to prevent ingestion, as some kids may see adults open them and manage to successfully imitate the needed movement later.

Adult caregivers can also make mistakes, such as mixing up similarly packaged products or similar-looking pills. This can include mistaking similarly bottled e-cigarette e-fluid or essential oils with the child's vitamin D supplement bottle.

Oder likewise recalled a recent case where a grandparent thought they were giving their grandchild an allergy medication, but accidentally gave the child their own strong meds instead, as the pills looked similar and had been stored together.

Prevent summertime risks

The Poison Information Center recommends some simple rules to help prevent accidental poisonings this summer:

1. When visiting or sending children to stay with relatives over the summer, keep any children's medications stored separately from the adults'

2. If you use lighter fluid to start a grill, store the bottle back out of children's reach immediately afterward

3. If you use vinegar while cooking, don't leave the bottle out or open vinegar lying around

4. Keep any alcohol and nicotine products securely stored out of reach

5. When guests come over, keep an eye on or securely store their bags or handbags too

Click here (link in Estonian) for more tips and information from the Health Board's Poison Information Center on summertime poisoning prevention.

Poison Control can be reached by phone, including in English, 24/7 via short code 16662 within Estonia or +372 794 3794 from abroad.

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