PEDIATRICS Vol. 47 No. 2 February 1971, pp. 439-444
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Psychosocial Study of Childhood Poisoning: A 5-Year Follow-up

James A. Margolis M.D.1

1 Division of Child Psychiatry, University of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington and Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Forty-two of 52 families that were participants in a retrospective study of childhood poisoning 5 years ago were included in this follow-up study. During the interim, none of the subjects or their siblings poisoned themselves and there was no shift from poisoning to other types of childhood accidents. Socioeconomic factors and school performance do not differentiate the groups. However, the poisoned children, especially the repeaters, have more behavior problems during latency than the control children and are characterized as hyperactive, "aggressive-impulsive," and "passive-anxious." The present study indicates that childhood poisoning is not only related to maladaptation in the child and family at the time of the poisoning, but predicts later problems in the child that are focused on difficulties in interpersonal relationships rather than exposing him to increased accident susceptibility. A parent-child relationship in the form of a "power struggle," misdirected anger, and developmental characteristics of oral explorative behavior, mimicry, and negativism predispose toddlers to ingest poisons.

Preventitive implications concentrate on the parent-child relationship rather than environmental risk. This approach includes education regarding developmental characteristics of the toddler, parent guidance to prevent power struggles and other inadequate methods of dealing with the child and ongoing intervention to help the child find more appropriate ways of handling aggression. These seem necessary both to reduce further poisonings and as primary prevention of serious characterologic problems later in the child's development.




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B. E. Benson, W. Klein-Schwartz, G. M. Oderda, and J. S. Lucy
Warning Labels: A Source of Toxicity Information for Parents
Clinical Pediatrics, August 1, 1984; 23(8): 441 - 444.
[Abstract] [PDF]