Nkiru Oh
Little kids are curious. They are adventurers and like to explore. They have their ways of getting into everything, especially things they are not supposed to go into. Yes, they enjoy snooping around in purses, jacket/coat pockets, handbags, wallets, glove compartments, and other places people typically keep their medicines and believe the kids have no business venturing into.
Do you know the dangers lurking in your medicine cabinet? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "unintentional poisoning was second only to motor vehicle crashes as a cause of unintentional injury death for all ages in 2009...[and] in 2008, 28,171 (91 percent) of all unintentional poisoning deaths were caused by drugs!" (Emphasis mine).
Some erroneously believe that OTCs (over-the-counter medications) are safe. No, please! ALL medicines including vitamin supplements have potentials to cause harm to adults and children when they are wrongly ingested. Many children have died, many cognitively affected, from taking a parent's medicine/s. Save your child from accidental death from ingesting your medications! Save yourself from the heartache and guilt of causing the death of, or impairment to, your child! Below are some of the ways The National Safety Council and other experts suggest you can protect your child from accidental ingestion of medications:
"Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt."
---Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC-184 BC)
Little kids are curious. They are adventurers and like to explore. They have their ways of getting into everything, especially things they are not supposed to go into. Yes, they enjoy snooping around in purses, jacket/coat pockets, handbags, wallets, glove compartments, and other places people typically keep their medicines and believe the kids have no business venturing into.
Do you know the dangers lurking in your medicine cabinet? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "unintentional poisoning was second only to motor vehicle crashes as a cause of unintentional injury death for all ages in 2009...[and] in 2008, 28,171 (91 percent) of all unintentional poisoning deaths were caused by drugs!" (Emphasis mine).
Some erroneously believe that OTCs (over-the-counter medications) are safe. No, please! ALL medicines including vitamin supplements have potentials to cause harm to adults and children when they are wrongly ingested. Many children have died, many cognitively affected, from taking a parent's medicine/s. Save your child from accidental death from ingesting your medications! Save yourself from the heartache and guilt of causing the death of, or impairment to, your child! Below are some of the ways The National Safety Council and other experts suggest you can protect your child from accidental ingestion of medications:
- Store medicine in a locked cabinet: The safest place to store medicine is out of the sight and reach of children. This can be a high cabinet or closet, and it should be locked at all times, even if you think your child cannot reach it.
- Use child-resistant caps for added security.
- Keep medicine in its original container: Don't switch containers for pills or liquids, because they could be mistaken for something else. Also, never use a medicine if the container doesn't have a legible label. Do not guess the name if you cannot read it.
- Never leave medicine out. If you get called to the phone or front door while you're taking or giving medicine, don't leave the container behind. Also, as tempting as it is when you’re going to take another dose soon, don’t leave medicine sitting out. Children act quickly, so medicine that’s forgotten about, even just for a moment, can be dangerous!
- Discard medicine properly/carefully. Don’t throw medicine in the trash—your child could easily dig it out. Instead, ask your pharmacist for a local collection program. Or, if you must throw out the medicine, keep it in its container and double-bag it. Dispose them in a way that a child cannot find and swallow them.
- Never refer to medicine as candy. Many parents do this and it is wrong! Help your child understand that medicine is medicine and not play things. Always call it by its proper name. Also, if possible, try not to take medication in front of children.
- Unpack and store medicine first. A bottle of coated pills looks a lot like candy to a young child. Remove medicine from grocery bags before your curious kids start investigating.
"Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt."
---Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC-184 BC)
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