Children's recognition of dangerous household products: child development and poisoning risk.

OBJECTIVE

Preliterate children may be poisoned because they fail to distinguish safe versus hazardous household products.

METHODS

Study 1: A total of 228 children aged 18-54 months completed four tasks assessing ability to recognize product safety. Study 2: A total of 68 children aged 17-31 months chose products to drink from pairs of dangerous versus beverage bottles. Study 3: A total of 119 children aged 18-42 months sorted 12 objects into toys, things you can drink, and things that are bad/dangerous.

RESULTS

Left alone, children frequently touched dangerous household products. Children frequently misidentified poisonous products as safe. Some developmental trends emerged. The following packaging features apparently helped children recognize danger: black bottle color; opaque packaging; salient symbols like insects; lack of pointy spouts; squared, not round, bottles; and metal, not plastic, containers.

CONCLUSIONS

Developing cognition helps preliterate children distinguish safe from dangerous household products. Multiple aspects of product packaging may reduce child poisoning risk if implemented by industry or policy.