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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Poison Treatment

Aired November 03, 2003 - 08:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For generations, have been advised to give Syrup of Ipecac to children who've ingested a potential poison. Now new guidelines suggest a changing of the guard against household poisons.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details.

Sanjay, Good morning.

Is there a sense that Ipecac doesn't work?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. First of all, Ipecac, for people who don't know, that's a medication basically to induce vomiting. And for 20 years it's sort of been the standard of care. It's put in those little baby first aid kits for parents to take home, in the case of accidental poisonings.

There is a sense, Soledad, to answer your question that it really doesn't work as well as people thought it did. In fact, it probably really was not ever any significant evidence that it worked that well. It was more of a measure that people sort of used as a last-line resort in the case of accidental poisoning.

Lots of concerns about poisoning, and for good reason. Lots of household products out there that could potentially be a problem, cosmetics, household cleaners, things like that. Even plants can sometimes be a problem.

Take a look at some of the numbers here in terms of the numbers of exposure. Still quite high. About 2.2 million exposures in the year 2000. The age group breaks down like this, 53 percent under the age of 6. That breaks down to about one child every 15 seconds. That's the bad news, Soledad. The good news is that out of all of those, there's only about 25 deaths a year or so. And that's in part, a large part, not because of Ipecac, but because of better package labeling, package protection, childproof protection, things like that, for the particularly harmful products. So while there's still poisoning going on, it's not of the particularly harmful products. Also the poison control centers.

So the old recommendations, just to be clear, broke down like this. If -- for the newborns especially, keep one ounce battle of Ipecac in the home. That was used to induce vomiting. The new recommendations, essentially, don't use Ipecac anymore. Get rid of it. In fact, it could potentially be a problem. It could potentially be abused, especially bulimics tend to abuse this particular medication. And don't administer activated charcoal either. That is something that is done in hospitals in the case of accidental poisoning. Don't use that either in the homes.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, then -- I see a lot of don'ts on that list. So what do you do? Your toddler swallows something out of -- even -- and I understand prevention is really key. But if, God forbid, your child swallows something, isn't the goal to get them to throw it up?

GUPTA: Well, actually, first of all, with regards to the Ipecac, the throwing it up part doesn't actually remove that much of the poison, which is part of the reason they've actually gotten rid of this particular recommendation. It only removes less than 16 percent, 17 percent of the actual poison. So not a very good thing. It could potentially cause persistent vomiting in a child, as well, so that is a problem.

Remember, Soledad, again, that out of all these accidental poisoning, about 2 million or so over the past every year for the past few years, very small number of them actually result in significant problems or death. So that's important news to keep in mind.

If your child does swallow something at home -- you have small children, I know -- do call the poison control center. We have the number, it's an important number to sort of write down and keep around by your phone. Call the poison control center. If there is significant problems, if your child is having trouble breathing, or choking or something like that, call 911. Those are still the best recommendations. They're going to be better recommendations than even taking the time to give Ipecac. It doesn't work as well, and it might actually delay you from doing those sorts of things that might save your child's life.

O'BRIEN: And I think it bears repeating to just childproof absolutely everything, even things you think your toddler couldn't -- the things my kids can get to that are up on shelves, up on counters, remarkable -- Sanjay.

GUPTA: Yes. And don't switch containers, either. That's another thing people do. They take medications out of containers, put it in containers that are possibly more reachable by children. Watch that as well.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay Gupta, good advice. Thanks. I've got to go throw out my Ipecac. All right, thanks.

GUPTA: See you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 3, 2003 - 08:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For generations, have been advised to give Syrup of Ipecac to children who've ingested a potential poison. Now new guidelines suggest a changing of the guard against household poisons.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details.

Sanjay, Good morning.

Is there a sense that Ipecac doesn't work?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. First of all, Ipecac, for people who don't know, that's a medication basically to induce vomiting. And for 20 years it's sort of been the standard of care. It's put in those little baby first aid kits for parents to take home, in the case of accidental poisonings.

There is a sense, Soledad, to answer your question that it really doesn't work as well as people thought it did. In fact, it probably really was not ever any significant evidence that it worked that well. It was more of a measure that people sort of used as a last-line resort in the case of accidental poisoning.

Lots of concerns about poisoning, and for good reason. Lots of household products out there that could potentially be a problem, cosmetics, household cleaners, things like that. Even plants can sometimes be a problem.

Take a look at some of the numbers here in terms of the numbers of exposure. Still quite high. About 2.2 million exposures in the year 2000. The age group breaks down like this, 53 percent under the age of 6. That breaks down to about one child every 15 seconds. That's the bad news, Soledad. The good news is that out of all of those, there's only about 25 deaths a year or so. And that's in part, a large part, not because of Ipecac, but because of better package labeling, package protection, childproof protection, things like that, for the particularly harmful products. So while there's still poisoning going on, it's not of the particularly harmful products. Also the poison control centers.

So the old recommendations, just to be clear, broke down like this. If -- for the newborns especially, keep one ounce battle of Ipecac in the home. That was used to induce vomiting. The new recommendations, essentially, don't use Ipecac anymore. Get rid of it. In fact, it could potentially be a problem. It could potentially be abused, especially bulimics tend to abuse this particular medication. And don't administer activated charcoal either. That is something that is done in hospitals in the case of accidental poisoning. Don't use that either in the homes.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, then -- I see a lot of don'ts on that list. So what do you do? Your toddler swallows something out of -- even -- and I understand prevention is really key. But if, God forbid, your child swallows something, isn't the goal to get them to throw it up?

GUPTA: Well, actually, first of all, with regards to the Ipecac, the throwing it up part doesn't actually remove that much of the poison, which is part of the reason they've actually gotten rid of this particular recommendation. It only removes less than 16 percent, 17 percent of the actual poison. So not a very good thing. It could potentially cause persistent vomiting in a child, as well, so that is a problem.

Remember, Soledad, again, that out of all these accidental poisoning, about 2 million or so over the past every year for the past few years, very small number of them actually result in significant problems or death. So that's important news to keep in mind.

If your child does swallow something at home -- you have small children, I know -- do call the poison control center. We have the number, it's an important number to sort of write down and keep around by your phone. Call the poison control center. If there is significant problems, if your child is having trouble breathing, or choking or something like that, call 911. Those are still the best recommendations. They're going to be better recommendations than even taking the time to give Ipecac. It doesn't work as well, and it might actually delay you from doing those sorts of things that might save your child's life.

O'BRIEN: And I think it bears repeating to just childproof absolutely everything, even things you think your toddler couldn't -- the things my kids can get to that are up on shelves, up on counters, remarkable -- Sanjay.

GUPTA: Yes. And don't switch containers, either. That's another thing people do. They take medications out of containers, put it in containers that are possibly more reachable by children. Watch that as well.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay Gupta, good advice. Thanks. I've got to go throw out my Ipecac. All right, thanks.

GUPTA: See you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com