Background and aims Acute accidental poisoning represent o major cause of morbidity and also sometimes mortality among young children and teenagers. In preschool age, poisoning seems to be mainly accidental. The child needs to explore, but also has a specific curiosity which leads to accidental ingestion on unattended pills or different household products. Parasuicidal behaviour or suicidal attempts remain prerogative for teenage period, especially in disorganised families or in case of psycho-affective inappropriate environment for child development.

This study aims to alarm for the constantly increasing number of cases of acute accidental poisoning and to identify risk factors.

Methods The present paper represents a retrospective study of 225 paediatric patients admitted in Emergency Children Hospital ‘Louis Turcanu’ Timisoara between 2013 and 2015 for acute accidental poisoning. We used Microsoft Excel for analysing data.

Results Of a total of 406 patients admitted on Toxicology Department, more than half (225) were accidental events and mainly non-drug poisonings (67,5%). Accidental/Voluntary poisoning ratio was 1,24:1 with a slightly predominance in boys for accidental poisoning with male : female ratio is 1,27:1. The majority of accidental poisoning cases (58%, 130 cases) occurred in small childhood (under 3 years of age) due to the lack of child surveillance or/and inappropriate use or storage of household products, fuel or unsupervised medication. Carbon monoxide poisoning shows homogenous distribution by age group, while nitrite poisoning is typical for toddler. Analysing environmental origin we showed a mild frequency in rural versus urban environment.

Conclusions Accidental poisonings represent a frequent reason for hospital presentation and/or admission. Risk factors include inappropriate environment, young parents, disorganised families, insufficient child surveillance for small age, curiosity, ADHD behaviour. We support ‘Keep away from child’ sign on each harmful product or medication and awakening parents of accidental harmful poisoning in a carelessness moment.