Hyderabad: At least 10 cases of children being injured by falling objects, ingesting toilet cleaners and detergents, or consuming mosquito repellents are being reported in city hospitals every month. These children are as young as one to three years of age.
The recent case of one-year-old Sriyansh drinking turpentine oil at a day care centre shows how important it is to make the surroundings safe for tiny tods. Dr Preeti Sharma, senior paediatrician at KIMS Cuddles, said, “Children are injured by falling televisions, brass statues and glass showpieces. We are seeing a lot of cases where a child drank mosquito repellent liquid. There is a small quantity of liquid but it leads to pain in the abdomen. These are preventable incidents and it is very important for parents and extended family to keep these things out of children’s reach.”
A three-year-old child consumed toilet cleaner, which led to fits and the child was in intensive care unit for a week. Such serious cases are seen once in two months, said paediatricians who state that the accidents occur when the person monitoring the children are busy.
Ingestion of large quantities of detergents, industrial chemicals and hard liquids causes neurological damage and is more difficult to manage medically. In some cases, the children die. In less quantity, there is severe pain in the abdomen and the child begins to breathe heavily.
Dr Parag Shankarrao D., consultant paediatric intensivist at Rainbow Hospital, said, “Often the packages of toilet cleaners and detergents have such bright colours that children get attracted to them. This is found to be the prime reason why they grab it and begin experimenting.” He said it is very important appropriate safety measures are taken including clearing the child’s area of these objects and restricting the movement of the child. Injuries in grave cases take weeks to recover and often children are left with scars and marks of the incidents.
