Let them eat candy
Here's a link on my site about the idea that the internet is only dangerous if it seems safer than home.

/onlinesafety

Similarly:

Kids who don't have access to candy will eat pills, or laundry soap packets, thinking (hoping) they're candy. Kids with a bowl of M&Ms readily at hand are unlikely to eat grandma's sleeping pills.

Karen James wrote:
-=-Kids who don't have access to candy will eat pills-=-

A young friend of our who lives very close to us snuck into my house one day when myself and the kids were all playing out in our yards. I knew our little friend was prone to getting into things, so I was in the habit of keeping my eye on him. I also knew that he liked to sneak into our house when we weren't looking. I should have known to lock the door earlier, but it was a bit of a nuisance to lock our door when we were just outside of it.

One afternoon I was looking around for our friend and couldn't find him. I went inside and was stunned to find him standing on our kitchen counter holding and eagerly eating a bottle of little bear laxatives that I had put in a bin at the very top of my cupboard. Needless to say, I was stunned. Luckily I had caught him before he ate too many. "Yum!" is what he said to me when I found him. He was five or six, I believe. I felt sad for him, really.

After that, I started locking my door when we played in the yard, and I talked with his mom. "Get the boy some gummy bears or candies," I said. She said "No" because it makes him hyper. I'd take (imaginary) hyper over the risk of hospital visit (or worse) any day.


I went to see whether this point is made elsewhere on the internet. If anyone sees it, please let me know at Sandra at SandraDodd.com.

I found a few statements, though, of small interest:

Children may sometimes eat large amounts of iron pills because they look like candy. Many manufacturers have changed their pills so they no longer look like candy. Medline


A new report just out shows a stunning 30 percent spike over the past decade in young kids accidentally poisoned by medication. In 2011 alone, 67,000 children were rushed to hospitals for it.

"It should be scary," Carr told us. "They think it's candy, so they're going to swallow it and they're going to go after more." TODAY News

Sandra note: I assume that number applies to the U.S.

Poison—another view of parents believing something is poisonous

Creating an unschooling nest The Full Plate Club Logic