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Many parents and caregivers know leaving a crawling or walking infant out of sight is dangerous, especially if a substance is within reach. But now, new Valley research suggests immobile infants are as big of a concern for accidental ingestions.

Researchers from Banner Health reviewed more than 270,000 national substance exposure cases reported from 2004 to 2013 for infants up to age 6 months. Because of an infant’s limited mobility, Dr. A. Min Kang expected most cases resulted from parents giving incorrect dosages of medicine.

"And not so much from kids exploring their environment," said Kang. "But there were quite a few where these infants were actually somehow getting a hold of different things, whether they were plants, diaper creams maybe at a changing station or some other product and putting them in their mouths and getting exposed that way.”

Half of all cases came from unintentional ingestion while just over a third came from dosing errors. But of cases brought to a clinic, only 20 percent were admitted. Kang encourages parents and caregivers to call poison control first (1-800-222-1222) in case of accidental ingestion and not immediately bring an infant to an emergency clinic.