CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Parents should avoid the old standby poison remedy of ipecac syrup and instead call poison control centers when children ingest toxic substances, the American Academy of Pediatrics says, reversing a long-standing position.
For decades, doctors have recommended that parents keep a bottle of ipecac on hand to induce vomiting when children ingest something poisonous. The antidote, made from roots of the tropical ipecac plant, induces vomiting.
Recommendations for using it have been based more on intuition rather on than any hard evidence that home use is effective, said Dr. Milton Tenenbein, director of the Manitoba, Canada, poison control center and lead author of the new guidelines.Fully Story
Interesting and good to know. It makes sense.
It would probably a fascinating sociological study to examine the differences in parenting guidelines through the years. For example, when I was born, the rule was that parents were to put babies to sleep on their tummies to avoid choking on possibly spit up stuff (mucous, milk, whatever). Now, because of the recent findings with SIDS they say that babies should always be put to sleep on their backs. This is just one example of many. I found this phenomenon very interesting (and sometimes irritating) when I became a parent and was often given the "well it was good and safe enough when you were kids" speech about almost everything I was doing "wrong" with my child by well meaning parents, in-laws, grandparents, grandparents-in-laws, aunts and uncles.
My biggest question is this. When my kids grow up, how will I react when they tell me that everything that I have learned as a parent of the early 2000's isn't considered safe or is not recommended anymore. Hmm, puts everything into a totally different perspective now.
Posted by peninah at November 3, 2003 04:21 PM