Lara McKenzie, PhD, discusses how to keep children safe from accidental poisoning

In this discussion with Contemporary Pediatrics, Lara McKenzie, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, highlights the significant risks posed by common household cleaning products to young children, particularly those younger than 5 years.

A central focal point of the conversation revolves around the startling statistic that detergent packets and spray bottles are responsible for over 60% of container-related injuries among this vulnerable demographic. Addressing the urgent need for regulatory adjustments, McKenzie strongly advocates implementing comprehensive child-resistant packaging standards specifically targeted at household spray bottles.

She explains that young children are highly observant and frequently mimic the actions of adults. However, because they lack the hand size and grip strength of fully grown individuals, they typically modify their physical approach to operating these spray mechanisms.

Often, children will use both hands or their thumbs to depress the spray trigger, inadvertently aiming the nozzle directly at their own faces. This leads to instances where dangerous cleaning formulas are sprayed directly into their eyes or mouths, causing severe irritation, chemical burns, or accidental ingestion. Introducing strong child-resistant mechanisms for spray bottles would be a crucial preventive measure to significantly reduce the frequency of such hazardous, avoidable incidents.

Furthermore, the discussion touches upon the alarming reality that acute poisoning constitutes 64% of the diagnoses related to cleaning product exposures. While McKenzie notes that she is not an emergency department physician and therefore cannot outline precise clinical treatment protocols, she heavily emphasizes the critical immediate actions parents must take following an accident. Caregivers should immediately contact the national Poison Help line or rush the child to an emergency department if ingestion is suspected.

Equally important is the necessity for parents to bring the specific product container to the medical facility, as knowing the exact ingredients is vital for health care professionals to administer the correct treatment quickly and effectively. Because common staples such as bleach and traditional detergents are consistently implicated in the majority of these pediatric injuries, the conversation also highlights targeted educational strategies that pediatricians can freely share with families to promote a much safer home environment.

McKenzie suggests a multipronged approach to basic household safety. Primarily, she stresses the importance of storing all hazardous cleaning products securely. This means keeping them elevated, completely out of the sight of small children and, ideally, secured within a completely locked cabinet or closet to eliminate any possibility of unauthorized access.

Alongside secure storage, she introduces a safety concept known as staying original, which advises parents to always keep cleaning solutions in their exact original manufacturing containers rather than transferring them to secondary, unmarked bottles or decorative decanters. Retaining the original packaging ensures that critical ingredient lists and emergency handling instructions are always readily available in the event of a poisoning incident. Finally, every parent and caregiver is strongly encouraged to proactively save the national Poison Help line number directly into their cell phones, ensuring that no essential time is wasted searching for it during a chaotic household emergency.

The interview concludes by reflecting on the impact of modern product innovations over the past decade, specifically highlighting the introduction of concentrated detergent packets or laundry pods around 2012. These highly concentrated, visually appealing, and densely packed pods caused a massive, unprecedented spike in severe pediatric injuries and widespread chemical burns shortly after they entered the consumer space.

Fortunately, recent years have seen a gradual decline in these specific injury rates, a positive trend that McKenzie explicitly attributes to subsequent industry-wide packaging modifications designed to deter young children, alongside widespread public awareness campaigns regarding the inherent and unseen dangers of these modern household cleaning conveniences.

No relevant disclosures.

References

1. Study finds household cleaning products remain a leading source of child injury. News release. Nationwide Children’s Hospital. April 2, 2026. Accessed April 2, 2026. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1122428
2. McAdams RJ, Shonia M, Roberts KJ, McKenzie LB. Cleaning product-related injuries treated in US emergency departments: 2007-2022. Pediatrics. Published online April 2, 2026. doi:10.1542/peds.2025-074551