DANGER! Keeping Children Away From Prescription Meds WORDS: Recall Report Few people navigate their children’s early years without bringing prescription drugs into their homes. These drugs may be for the parents or youngsters, but they can cause devastating damage to children if the drugs are not properly handled and secured. The CDC estimates that, in the USA, accidental overdoses are responsible for approximately 70,000 trips to the emergency room each year for people under the age of 18. About 10 percent of these overdoses are the result of a caregiver giving the child the wrong dose, and over 80 percent are due to the kids ingesting the medicines themselves. There are several strategies that adults can use to protect the health and safety of any youngsters in their homes. The following tips should be practiced not only by parents, but by any homes or businesses where children are present, and could potentially have access to prescription medicines. • Ask for child-resistant packaging. Many medicines are available with or without child-resistant packages. Households with young people should always ask the pharmacist for the childproof option. However, do not be lulled into a false sense of security by the package. Some youngsters can open child-resistant bottles and vials with ease. • Use the most accurate dosing measure. Many prescription medicines come with caps or cups that can be used to measure the dose. These may be accurate enough for a teen or adult but not for a young child. It is better to buy a dosing syringe to ensure that the child is not being given too much. • Do not present medicine as candy. It is not a good idea to tell a child that medicine is candy or that the liquid tastes good. It may make the child take the medicine more easily, but it can also cause them to help themselves to more later. • Be aware of the pill count. Keeping an eye on the number of pills in a bottle and knowing how many there should be is important. If pills are missing, it may indicate that a child has taken them. • Get rid of old medications. Medicines that have expired or that are left over from a previous illness should be disposed of. They should not be ��ushed down the toilet or drain, as this may put the drugs into the water supply. They should be mixed with coffee grounds to make them unpalatable, sealed in a can or jar and disposed of in the garbage. • Keep all drugs in one place that is out of reach. All medicines in the house should be together on a high shelf or a locked cabinet. This applies to the parents’ home, the grandparents’ home and the homes of friends. Prescription drugs pose a very real threat to the health and safety of children. Taking a few simple precautions, being vigilant and knowing which medicines pose the greatest threat can greatly reduce the chance of an accidental overdose. Recall Report is a comprehensive health and safety site, providing detai led information on consumer recalls, including prescription drugs. �������� �������������������� �������������� ���������������������������������������������� youth, you can visit www.recallreport.org/ health-information/ childrens/.
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