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Six On Your Side: Protect children 6 & under from poison

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Very common household products through a child's eyes look like candy. Pediatricians are even calling them "pretty poisons."

It's a parents worst nightmare.

"She bit into it, she had it all over her hands and all over her mouth," says Jamee Carter who has four children in her household with another on the way. "So, I just immediately grabbed her and was trying to rinse out her mouth."

Carter turned her back for one second while doing laundry and her daughter, Kaylee, a toddler at the time, got a hold of a laundry detergent pod.

The Caldwell mom is not alone in the scare.

Obviously, health officials urge you to call 911 if your child, or an adult, is unconscious. If they're alert, it's advised to call the poison hotline at 1-800-222-1222.

"Try to get as much vital information as you can, stay on the line with them [hotline health professional]," says Chris Smith, a public information officer for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. "Idaho does keep track of that. We know what poisons are the most threats."

The top reasons for poison control calls in Idaho for kids are cosmetics, including nail polish and toothpaste, cleaning supplies, aspirin and even diaper cream can be very dangerous for a child to ingest.

Carter regrets ever buying the colorful detergent pods. If she knew then how poisonous they are, she would have never bought them in the first place.

"Everything is good now," she says. "So, she's perfectly healthy. It didn't affect her long-term or short-term [minus an overnight stay in the hospital]."

Besides keeping dangerous items for kids out of their reach or locked up, it's recommend to never refer to medicine as candy and to avoid taking medication in front of your children.

The 24-hour emergency poison hotline is staffed with health professionals who have special training. In 2016, over 13,000 calls came in to the Idaho Emergency Poison Control Hotline.

The top culprits for adults in the Gem state are painkillers like aspirin, sedatives and anti-depressants.

In the U.S., poisoning is the number one cause of injury deaths for adults.