Safety in the bag

Nadine Meehan January 16, 2016

Published in Kidspot, The Daily Telegraph, January 16, 2016.

Two medically minded mums banded together to keep children away from the most dangerous items in the home, writes Richard Noone

AS a busy mother-of-three and former editor-in-chief of a prominent medical journal, Nadine Meehan thought she knew better than most about the dangers of medications.

But it wasn’t until she was sitting in a paediatric first aid course did she had a “light bulb moment’’ which has seen her partner with a GP and fellow mum to develop an Australian-first child-resistant carry bag.

“The paramedic running the course asked us what was the most poisonous thing we have around the home?’’ she says.

“He said ‘it’s paracetamol and what do all you mothers do? You throw it in your handbag, where the kids find it and chew on it. Then we have to come along in the ambulance, pick them up and take them to hospital’.

‘That was my light bulb moment, I realised I had all these child-resistant locks on cupboards around the house but there was nothing portable for when you want to carry things in your handbag, nappy bag, travel bags.’’

Medical Journal warns of supplement dangers

Nadine Meehan December 2, 2015

Seemingly harmless things that sit on our kitchen benches, in our bathroom cabinets or handbags, can be dangerous to young children.

This was the finding of an important study published recently in the world’s leading medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine. The authors found that in the US, about 4,830 young children were treated in emergency departments each year for unintended negative effects of dietary supplements, herbal products, vitamins and minerals and herbal and homeopathic preparations that are applied to the skin.

The study found that iron overdose has been one of the leading causes of poisoning death in children younger than 6 years, and that iron supplements are the second most commonly taken supplement by unsupervised children. This is despite the requirement for supplements containing iron to be in child-resistant packaging. No such requirement exists for other dietary supplements.

The findings have prompted the authors to recommend: “Innovative safety packaging and targeted education on safe storage” to help reduce the unsupervised ingestion of supplements by children.

Reference: New England Journal of Medicine (Oct. 15, 2015)

Juno ChildSafe radio interview - 3BA 102.3FM

Nadine Meehan November 11, 2015

3BA 102.3FM Ballarat radio interview - Wednesday 28th October.

Nadine chats with Ed Cowlishaw about her light bulb moment at a paediatric first aid course and child safety around the house.

Juno ChildSafe - childproofing on the go

Store medication safely with Juno Childsafe