With prolonged exposure, symptoms can include difficulty thinking and confusion, slurred speech, visual changes, fainting, seizures, trouble breathing, heart arrhythmias, low blood pressure, coma and even death. Children can have more severe symptoms at lower levels of carbon monoxide poisoning than adults. Infants may just be more irritable or lethargic. It can be easy to diagnosis a child as having carbon monoxide poisoning if he is found in an enclosed area with poor ventilation and a source of carbon monoxide, such as a running automobile in a locked garage, or after a house fire, but can be more difficult if the source is a faulty gas stove or furnace, etc. You should also suspect carbon monoxide poisoning if other family members have similar symptoms, if the symptoms only occur in the house, or in the car, etc., and you have a source of carbon monoxide, including any type of fuel burning appliances, in your home.
Testing includes obtaining a blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration.
Carbon monoxide poisoning can be prevented by not exposing your child to sources of carbon monoxide in poorly ventilated areas, do not use a charcoal grill indoors, leave a car running in the garage, or use an unvented space heater and have your home heating equipment and chimney inspected each year. Also, a carbon monoxide detector can alert you to the presence of carbon monoxide in your home, before it has a chance to build up to a level that can cause symptoms. You should call your local poison control center if you suspect that your child may have been exposed to carbon monoxide. All rights reserved. It is not meant to replace the advice of the physician who cares for your child.