Most moms always carry a purse, backpack, or diaper bag to hold all their essentials. You never know when you’re going to need something; especially when you’re out and about with children. One thing many of us don’t think about is the dangers that could be lurking in our bags. Purse safety for kids isn’t something we typically think about, but it should be.
There’s a home safety cheat sheet in the toolkit grab yours today!
A few weeks ago my family went out to brunch with my husband’s grandparents, and I wanted to make sure it was an enjoyable experience for everyone. I packed my trusty old diaper bag to the gills with everything I thought we might need. Extra snacks, check. Toys, check. Ipad, check. Baby wipes, check.
Throughout the meal as our kids needed something to stave off a massive meltdown, I was able to pull it out quickly. Crisis averted. My hubby’s grandmother complimented me on how prepared I was AND said she was impressed with my Mary Poppins bag. PHEW. Good job me.
When we got home, I tossed the bag on the floor without a second thought. Not long after that, I found my youngest squirting a bottle of hand sanitizer all over her feet. Ugh.
How did she even get it out?! It was in a zipped pouch IN the diaper bag?! That’s when I started thinking about purse safety for kids. I had never thought about all the dangerous, and even poisonous, stuff in my bag.
Purse Safety for Kids
So I did an experiment.
I dumped my entire bag onto the kitchen table and looked up everything that could be ingested Poison Control’s website. Here’s what I found:
Dangers in my Purse
- Baby Powder: can cause trouble breathing and be fatal to children if inhaled
- Diaper Cream: A lick or swallow of zinc oxide or lanolin diaper cream is not dangerous to a child; larger amounts can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
- Hand Sanitizer: A lick of hand sanitizer won’t hurt a child or anyone else. Drinking it can cause alcohol poisoning, which can cause low blood sugar, coma, and seizures
- Toothpaste: can cause stomach upset if swallowed
- Bug Spray: can irritate your child’s eyes and mouth, and even cause seizures if swallowed.
- Sunscreen: can irritate your child’s eyes and mouth, and cause vomiting if swallowed
- Lotion: can cause your child to experience an upset stomach and diarrhea if swallowed in large amounts
- Eye drops: can cause drowsiness or affect your child’s heart and blood pressure.
Choking Hazards
- Loose change
- Pens
- Gum
- Batteries (why did I even have a loose battery in my diaper bag?!)
- Cough Drops
- Breath Mints
Great.
Here I am prepared for almost any situation, but my bag is loaded with potential dangers for my kids. What do you do? It’s not like I’m walking around with a jug of moonshine in my diaper bag, but apparently ingesting enough hand sanitizer could have similar effects in children.
Crap.
There’s a home safety cheat sheet in the toolkit grab yours today!
I’m not going to stop carrying hand sanitizer just because one of my kids might ingest it. The benefits of hand sanitizer far outweigh that risk- at least for me.
Here’s what I’m going to do practice purse safety for kids:
- Keep your purse or bag out of reach of small children. This is especially important to remember when you have family or guests visiting your home.
- Keep the American Association of Poison Control Centers phone number in your cell phone and on your fridge at home, in case of accidental swallowing of dangerous items: 1-800-222-1222.
- Avoid carrying items that can be considered dangerous in your purse or bag if they are not necessary (like that random battery I found).
- Regularly organize the bag and toss things that don’t need to be there.
Are there dangers lurking in your purse or diaper bag? What steps will you take to protect your kids? Let me know in the comments!
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