It’s easy to overlook potential hazards in your home during the busy holiday season. Unintentional poisonings are more likely when people are preoccupied. To ensure your holiday season is safe and merry, keep an eye on these items:
Foodborne illness is common during the holidays. You can get sick after eating food not cooked thoroughly or stored properly. For more details, see our blog post “Lose Harmful Bacteria—Not Your Appetite—This Holiday Season.”
Unsupervised children may drink unfinished alcoholic beverages. Alcohol can be very dangerous for small children and pets. For example, 3 ounces of hard liquor is potentially fatal to a child weighing 25 pounds.
The symptoms of an alcohol overdose may be mild, such as dizziness and nausea. Symptoms can lead to serious complications, such as vomiting, drowsiness, difficulty breathing, coma and death. Alcohol intoxication can also lower children’s blood sugar to a dangerous level.
Whatever your holiday tradition, care must be taken with small toys and gifts with young children. Small toys, dreidels and other festive objects can be choking hazards for young children. Many toys and cards contain small button batteries which can be especially dangerous to toddlers two years old and under.
IPC recommends labeling or keeping a record of all the plants in your home.
Christmas trees: Evergreens, such as balsams, cedar, fir, juniper and pine, are safe. Poisoning is unlikely if only a few needles are swallowed. Call IPC if someone ingests a large amount of needles.
These non-toxic holiday plants are safe for your home:
Our blog tackles urgent poisoning concerns and seasonal topics to keep you in the know. Stay informed as our poison prevention experts share their insights.
IPC offers free poison prevention resources to empower parents, teachers and public officials in preventing poisonings.
It happens often. Children eat something or get something in their eye that they shouldn’t have. Get expert advice on what to do next.