Probably the other thing that parents wouldn’t think of as being highly toxic is iron tablets, and iron tablets can commonly be prescribed to mothers after they’ve had a baby. And I have seen a little girl who managed to swallow 20 iron tablets and when we X-rayed her, they were all stacked up in her oesophagus. They cause both a caustic injury to the oesophagus and then they cause a systemic toxicity as you start to absorb the iron tablets. So that little girl managed to swallow 20.
Read MoreKeep out of reach of children message failing
I think one of the big frustrations I have had is that the prevention messaging has largely been around keep out of reach of children, and the problem is that this is failing on many levels. So for a start, if you keep all of your medication up in a locked cupboard; that’s fine but no one would ever take it if it’s always in a locked cupboard, so you have to get it down at some point to access the medication to either to give it to some child in the family or take it yourself.
Read MoreOne child every eight minutes treated in US emergency departments for medicine poisoning
...we know that in Queensland approximately a thousand toddlers every year present to Queensland emergency departments for a medication-related poisoning, and we also know that the Queensland Poisons Information Centre fields many more calls than that, both in relation to medication poisoning and also other sorts of toddler poisonings...
Read More