The common household items that need locking away from your kids asap!

Thousands of calls are made to the National Poisons Hotline each year, the majority are for common household items, with cleaning products and painkillers topping the list in South Australia alone.

Ibuprofen and paracetamol topped the list in South Australia for the most calls, reports 7 news.

SA Health’s Dr Nicola Spurrier said some of the most commonly reported incidents include a child finding medication and ingesting it without the parents knowing.

Anti-depressants and sleeping and anxiety medications were also ingested in large numbers with parents ringing for advice almost once a day.

Experts said even natural products can be deadly. In South Australia alone, essential oils, diffusers and air fresheners are the items rounding out the top five poisons.

“Only a very small amount of pure eucalyptus oil can cause a child to become unconscious within 15 minutes,” Dr Spurrier said.

Cleaning agents, especially toilet cleaners, were also among other potentially deadly household items.

Holly Fitzgerald from Kidsafe advised storing items safely in high places out of reach and locked away.

She added they should also be more than 1.5 metres from the ground.

Recently an Australian paediatric doctor shared a warning about essential oils in a bid to spread the message far and wide.

Dr Nelu said essential oils can cause anything from ‘severe vomiting to drowsiness to changes in the heart’s electrical activity to chemical burns to seizures’. Read more on that here.

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