What happens if you ingest paraffin

Editorial team. Paraffin poisoning. Poisonous Ingredient. DO NOT make the person throw up. Contact poison control for help. If the person has an allergic reaction, call or the local emergency number. Before Calling Emergency. Determine the following information: The person's age, weight, and condition Name of product as well as the ingredients and strength, if known The time it was swallowed The amount swallowed. Take the container with you to the hospital, if possible.

What to Expect at the Emergency Room. The person may receive: Fluids through a vein IV Medicines to treat symptoms Mild laxatives to help move the paraffin through the intestine and be removed from the body If an allergic reaction occurs, the person may need: Airway and breathing support, including oxygen. In extreme cases, a tube may be passed through the mouth into the lungs to prevent aspiration.

A breathing machine ventilator would then be needed. Chest x-ray. ECG electrocardiogram, or heart tracing. The same is true of other petroleum related products such as diesel and paint thinners. If a child swallows paraffin, diesel, paint thinners or any other similar product, the best thing to do is to take the child to a hospital casualty department. The hospital staff will check blood oxygen saturation levels.

The treatment given will depend on whether or not symptoms indicate that paraffin has ended up in the lungs. It may also depend on how much paraffin has been swallowed. Where the amount of paraffin consumed is believed to be considerable, a nasal gastric tube may be inserted and the contents of the stomach washed out. If paraffin has been aspirated into the respiratory tract, this may cause inflammation of lung tissue, which may be so severe as to cause pulmonary oedema and hypoxaemia.

Symptoms of this usually occur within hours but may be seen a day or so after ingestion. If necessary, the hospital may connect the child to a ventilator to assist breathing. The signs of pneumonitis also include cough, tachypnoea and tachycardia, cyanosis, pulmonary crepitations and rhonchi.

However a chest X-ray often shows pulmonary changes non-segmental consolidation or collapse, especially on the right side and lower lobes even without pulmonary physical signs 2. The incidence of central nervous system complications is variable but may occur in at least a quarter of cases. These most commonly include lethargy and much less often semi-coma, coma and convulsions 2. Bone marrow toxicity and haemolysis are not common but the clinician must be aware of the possibility of heart rhythm problems such as atrial fibrillation and ventricular fibrillation and hepatic and renal failure.

Contact with the skin and mucous membranes may cause variable degrees of irritation up to the formation of bullae.