Poison Safety:  Protect Your Child from Household Poisons

Store all medications, including vitamins and nonprescription drugs, in a locked closet or cabinet. Return medication to storage immediately after use. Purchase medications with child-resistant safety caps.

Never call medicine "candy." Don't take medication in front of children. Ask all guests to keep their medications out of sight and out of reach of children.

Do not store medications and household products with food.

Store alcoholic beverages and the following household products out of reach, preferably under lock: cleaning fluids, detergents, bleaches, insect spray, weed killer, fertilizer, gasoline, car wax, and turpentine. Store all products in their original containers.

Poison Safety:  Protect Your Child from Lead Poisoning

Ask your doctor about blood lead screening if your child lives in or regularly visits a house or child care facility built before 1950 or a home built before 1978 that is being remodeled or has been remodeled in the last 6 months.

Also check with your doctor if your child has a sibling or playmate who has or had a high blood lead level.

Poison Safety:  Protect Your Child from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Install carbon monoxide alarms near bedrooms and on each floor of your home. Make sure that space heaters, furnaces, fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves are properly vented and inspected each year.

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Information about Poison Safety was graciously shared by Dr. Patricia Keener, author of Caring for Kids: Useful Information & Hard-to-find Facts About Child Health and Development , and Riley Hospital for Children.