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Expert Tips To Keep Kids Safe Around Medicine

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One of my earliest childhood memories involves me being taken to the ER because I had opened a “childproof” bottle of little pink baby aspirins and started eating them. My mother panicked because she had no idea how many aspirins I had actually taken. I’m glad she took me straight to the doctor for help. I don’t remember much besides having to throw up in a hospital pan and feeling confused about what was going on.

Ever since that day, my mom was super diligent about keeping medications away from me and my siblings. And now that she is a grandma, she never misses an opportunity to remind me to put my medicines up where my children cannot get into them. I’m sure she would be happy if I kept medicines in a padlocked safe, but since that is not a realistic option, let’s take a look at some Expert Tips To Keep Kids Safe Around Medicine:

  • Put medicine and vitamins up and away out of children’s reach.
  • Even if you are tempted to keep medicine handy, put it away after every use.
  • Look around your home for items you may not think of as medicine, such as rubbing alcohol, gummy vitamins and eye drops. Store these up and away from children.
  • When you have guests in your home, offer to put their purses, bags and coats away out of the reach of children. (In 43% of ER visits for medicine poisoning, the child got into a relative’s medication.)
  • Be alert to medicines in the area your child visits. Make sure medications are put up and away.
  • Program the Nationwide Poison Control Center number into your phone: 1-800-222-1222.
  • Visit SafeKids.org for more tips on safe storage, safe dosing and safe disposal of medications.

Parents of young children, please take a minute (actually only 56 seconds) out of your busy day and watch the video Safe Dosing, Safe Storage, Safe Kids. The goal is for this video to reach 25K views. Let’s share these safety tips with our family and friends.

As a parent to four young children, I know that anything can happen when I turn my head…even if it is just for a few seconds! Kids are naturally curious and will get into anything left within their reach. We can never let our guard down when it comes to keeping our kids safe. I do my best to keep medications up and out of my children’s reach, but admit that I can do better at things like making sure our medicine does not get left out on the counter for convenience.

Every minute of every day, a poison control center takes a call about a potential medical poisoning in a child age 5 and under. And 67,000 children visit the emergency room for medicine poisoning every year…that’s one child every 8 minutes! Take a look at The Facts about Kids and Medication Safety:

Safe Kids Worldwide Medication Safety Infographic

Like Safe Kids USA on Facebook
Follow @SafeKidsUSA on Twitter

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Safe Kids Worldwide and I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robin O says

    That’s a scary story! We all need to be diligent and vigilant.
    Thank you for the thorough tips and the infographic and the video.

  2. Tammy S says

    I read something about this the other day at my doctor’s office. They stated that one of the most common places kids find medicine is in their mother’s purse. That shocked me. I am good about all the medication around the house. I just never thought about my purse. So ladies be sure and double check your purse. Thanks for the post.

  3. Jo-Ann Brightman says

    I was not aware of all these sttistics about kids and medications. Thanks for the tips and the info.