Palm Oil Not Antidote For Poison, Paediatrician Warns
By Victor Ernest
A consultant paediatrician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Gbemisola Boyede, has cautioned against the practice of using palm oil as an antidote for poison.
The medical practitioner said contrary to the popular belief, palm oil is not an agent to induce vomiting nor an antidote that can neutralise the effects of poison.
”In Nigeria, the most commonly used agents, either to initiate vomiting or neutralise the effects of poison, is the red palm oil,” she noted.
She stated that using palm oil to induce vomiting is dangerous for many reasons; adding that inducing vomiting only works if the poisoning has occurred less than one hour.
Side Effects
She explained that there are certain poisons whose effects actually become worse by inducing vomiting, urging that vomiting should never be induced in such instances.
According to the doctor, using palm oil to induce vomiting is a myth and it has its own health risk, as its inhalation into the lungs can lead to a complication of pneumonia, where a person, especially children develop breathing problems.
Alternative
She however hinted that vomiting can be induced using palm oil within one hour after a child swallows a blood tablet, but added that it does not still protect the child from the side effects of inducing vomiting.
She therefore advised that the best thing to do is to go to any hospital’s children’s emergency room immediately for evaluation by the doctors.