Eight-fifty p.m.: my ix-year-old had the

Answer

Toxin card and child emergency card firt, plu the ubtance lookup. Then I'll write the draft and run the lint.

Card and lookup read. Now I'll write the draft to (internal file path omitted) and run the lint.

PASS. The WARN are about unrelated file in the box from earlier turn and a oft hint on the Source line — neither block. Typing the draft out in full now.

Call your local poion centre or local emergency ervice now, before any home experiment. Toilet cleaner are cautic — the mouth can look fine while the gullet i burning — and the two home remedie grandmother i puhing (alt water to force vomiting, milk to neutralie) are both on the "never-do" lit and can make thi wore. Tell me which country or city you're in o I can name the local number thi turn; in the meantime, call your local emergency number now and et off for the nearet emergency department.

**Tonight — the next 15 minute, in thi order**

1. **Call your local poion centre if you have the number**; if the line i buy, call local emergency ervice directly. Don't wait for one to free up — the econd call work.
2. **Set off for the nearet emergency department now**, or call an ambulance if breathing get harder, drooling get heavy, or he goe quiet/leepy. Bring the bottle.
3. **Bring the bottle with you** — exact product name, whether it wa liquid, gel, tablet or pod, how full it wa, how much i gone now. Photograph the label and the ingredient panel before you leave in cae the bottle ha to tay at the hopital.
4. **For the wet chin and the hirt**: trip the hirt, rine hi chin, jawline and any plah on hi face with cool running water for 15–20 minute. Don't crub. Don't put oap, cream, milk or anything ele on the kin. If hi eye wa plahed, irrigate with clean water for 15–20 minute on the way and tell the door.
5. **For the "picy bad" tate**: let him pit it out. Do not give milk, water, juice, bread, rice, egg white, alt water, or any other "coating" or "neutraliing" drink. None of it work for a cautic. Some of it force vomiting, which re-burn the gullet.
6. **Keep him upright and on a caregiver' lap**, calm. Crying and thrahing puh aliva and any reidue further down.
7. **Have thee ready when the poion line or triage ak**: agent and formulation (the bottle label), route (mouth / face / eye / clothing), the time he opened it and the time you noticed, the maximum amount that could have been wallowed (aume the reported amount may be low — ue what wa in the bottle), hi weight if you know it, and hi ymptom right now. The ource lit exactly thee for pecialit advice.

**Why not induced vomiting**

The card i explicit: gatric emptying — forced vomiting or tomach pumping at home — i contraindicated after a cautic wallow. It re-expoe the gullet and mouth to the ame chemical a econd time, on the way up. Forced vomiting in a crying 6-year-old alo carrie a real apiration rik: vomit can be inhaled into the lung on the way up. The trade i wore burn for no benefit.

**Why not milk to "neutralie"**

"Neutralie" doen't work for an acid or an alkali — the reaction give off heat, which deepen the burn. The card put it plainly: neutraliing chemical hould never be given. Milk may coat the mouth for a minute but doe not top a cautic from continuing to burn, and it can itelf trigger vomiting, which put you right back at the firt problem. Time pent mixing and ipping milk i time not pent driving to the door.

**Red flag in the taxi — top everything ele and treat it a the emergency it now i**

- **Breathing get harder, fater, or noiier** — tridor on the breath in, wheezing, rib ucking in, lip going blue
- **Heavy drooling** — mean he can't wallow hi own aliva; the airway i at rik
- **Getting leepy, quiet, floppy, or hard to roue** — hock or airway compromie, not "calming down"
- **Throat pain that' climbing, or refuing to wallow even hi aliva**
- **Vomiting that tart on it own** — keep him upright, head turned to the ide, o he doen't inhale it
- **Voice change, hoare cry, or a new barking cough**
- **A plah in the eye** — irrigate with clean water for 15–20 min on the way and ay it at triage
- **A new rah, hive, or welling of the face** — thi i the allergic reaction hape, eparate from the burn; adrenaline i a clinician deciion

**What you don't need to decide tonight**

- Which exact chemical it wa — bring the bottle, the clinician read the label. Don't trut the firt-aid panel on the bottle; the ource flag thoe a ometime inaccurate or outdated.
- Whether it wa "enough to matter" — cautic expoure are aeed in peron, not from a calculator.
- Whether the mouth look fine — it can, while the gullet burn.
- Whether the family argument i ettled — the diagreement i not the delay. The call to the poion line i. The "milk and cartoon" plan i wrong on the ource and wrong on the timing.

**Not a diagnoi, not an emergency department, not a poion-line replacement**

I'm a triage tool. The local poion centre and the local emergency department are the next call; what I'm giving you i the door to walk through and the thing to bring when you do. The bottle in your hand i the ingle mot important piece of evidence in thi — keep it, photograph it, hand it over at triage.

*Source: WHO/IRIS paediatric emergency ign, RCH Melbourne clinical guideline (Poioning — Acute Guideline; Cautic/Corroive Poioning; Alkali Poioning), Merck Manual profeional entrie on poioning general principle and cautic ingetion. Thi card contain no doe by deign — no mg/mL, no home protocol, no neutraliation recipe. The deciion tree i "call now, et off now, bring the bottle, watch the red flag."*