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Storing Medicines Safely
Medicine safety includes more than following labels and giving kids the correct dose of medication with the correct dosing device. It also includes safely keeping medicines out of the reach and sight of children.
Each year, almost 60,000 children under the age of five wind up in hospital emergency rooms because of unsupervised medicine ingestions.
Research published in the September 2011 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics found that the number of accidental drug poisonings among young children increased 22 percent from 2001 to 2008. Researchers name increased quantities of medicines in the home as the primary cause. In 95 percent of the cases, the poisoning occurred because an unsupervised child ingested the drug, not because of a labeling or dosage error by a parent or health care worker.
Careful medicine storage is vital to keeping kids safe. Here are some tips to keep in mind from the Up and Away website:
- Choose a place that is high up and out of sight to keep all of your family’s medicines and vitamins, including those products you use every day.
- Put medicines and vitamins away—out of reach and out of sight—every time after you use them.
- Always lock the child safety cap completely after every time you use a medicine.
- Remind houseguests of safe medicine storage so they don’t leave medicines in bags, coats, or other reachable places that small children can get into.
- Always tell children what medicines are, never referring to them as candy. For more tips on teaching kids about medicine safety, watch this educational video from the FDA.
- Keep the national poison control helpline number handy, or program it into your phone: 800.222.1222.
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