We still have a bottle of Ipecac in the medicine chest because I just can’t get over decades of advice to keep a bottle on hand to stimulate vomiting after a child drinks something poisonous. However, there is no evidence that it helps and the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages its use and vomiting poison could harm a child’s lungs or esophagus.
Instead, save yourself the bucks and the space and tape the number of the for Poison Control Center – 800-222-1222 – to your medicine chest door.
– Paul Banas
San Francisco, California