The Danger in Kids' Vitamins

Oprah.com | July 15, 2003

Each year in the United States, 140,000 children wind up in emergency rooms due to poison—and no poison kills more children than iron. It's a common mineral found in colorful, sweet children's multivitamins. Because a vitamin overdose can be serious, even fatal, it's important to know the facts from Dr. Winnie King.

If Your Child Has Eaten Too Many Vitamins:
1. Get your child to the hospital immediately. There is no home remedy for iron poisoning.
2. Do not induce vomiting with ipecac or any other method.
3. You have only four hours after ingestion to perform chelation.

More Safety Facts:

Never trick your children into taking medicine by calling it candy.
Read the label instructions so you know the appropriate dosage for your child.
Inventory all the vitamins in your house. Keep them in a safe place away from your children.
One out of five children are poisoned at their grandparents' house.
Child-resistant is never child-proof, so keep bottles out of the reach of little hands.
Keep the number for poison control handy: 800-222-1222.

Printed from Oprah.com on Thursday, June 20, 2013