Poisons In The Garden

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31222, 21 November 1966, Page 2

Poisons In The Garden

Even a small suburban garden may contain dangerous plants and flowers which could poison a baby or small child. Dr. Peter Robson, of the British Medical Association, gives this warning to parents:

“Anyone going through the record of inquiries made to the poisons department of a hospital is always intrigued by the variety of poisonous substances children eat. There are countless dangerous plants to choose from in gardens and fields, and they are the third most common cause of poisoning in childhood. “Ar. ill, frightened child has more than usual difficulty in describing the sort of plant he has been eating. Parents can help a lot by showing the doctor the plant thought to be responsible. All parts of the plant may be needed for identification. A few black berries without their attached leaves may not be of much help. DEADLY BERRIES “Of the black berries, garden nightshade, often called black nightshade, is probably eaten more frequently than any other, and it might be confused with its more dangerous cousin, deadly nightshade, whose flowers are blue or purple and hang singly. “Potato flowers look like nightshade flowers and the berries which follow them contain the same poison as deadly nightshade. So does the potato itself if it is allowed to become green or sprout "Ivy berries appear in the) early spring because the plant j flowers in the winter. The! pea-sized berries cause violent! diarrhoea, quite a serious matter for a child. “Untrimmed privet hedges produce black berries in the autumn. It always reminds me of the baby who was put in the sunniest part of the garden close to a hedge. His mother found him a few minutes later with berries all over his pram and I found quite a few in his stomach when he came to hospital. “Woody nightshade has been top of the red berry pop parade for many years. In bunches of six or eight the berries may be mistaken for ( red currants, but they contain the same poison as deadly nightshade. "The most poisonous tree in

Britain is the yew, whose red, open-ended ‘berries’

contain a single seed. The seed and the evergreen leaves are very poisonous. The usual comment made about that is ‘the commonest symptom of yew poisoning is sudden death.’

“All parts of the laburnum tree are poisonous and most authorities would rank it as the country's second most poisonous tree. Apart from nightshade berries, laburnum pods are eaten more frequently than any other vegetable poison. So strong can the poison be that just holding the flowers or twigs in the mouth has caused sickness, giddiness and weakness with difficulty in movement and breathing in both childIren and adults. Broom has I pods like laburnum. The poison causes irritation and paralyses muscles, but the plant is probably much less poisonous than broomstick

superstitution would have us believe. “Of small shrubs and plants, the majority of the buttercup family are poisonous. The anemones, columbine, celandine, and delphinium are part of the family, too. EMERGENCY TREATMENT “If a child does eat part of a plant that is thought to be poisonous, the best treatment is to get rid of the poison just as quickly as possible, provided that the child is not unconscious or having fits. Most hospitals have special medicine for this purpose but an effective home remedy is one tablespoonful of salt in a tumberful of warm water. If you are out in the country, perhaps the best way to produce vomiting is for an adult to push his fingers into the child’s mouth and tickle the back of the throat. If done

quickly, sickness occurs before the child has time to bite. It is then essential to seek the advice of a doctor and, if possible, take a specimen of the plant with you. A bout of sickness does not necessarily empty the stomach, and if there is a possibility of delayed effects the doctor may decide to wash out the stomach. This is unpleasant, but safe and effective. Often the child’s struggles produce a crop of blue spots on the forehead. To be on the safe side, he may advise that the child remain in hospital for 24 hours’ observation.

“Great advances have been made in the treatment of poisoning recently and, provided plenty of time is available for such treatment to take effect, even the most seriously ill child can be expected to recover completely.”