Protecting your toddler from a medication mishap

We love our little ones! But how do we keep them safe when they start toddling around, especially if we have medicine in the home? Heaven knows that babies and toddlers love putting things in their mouths. And some medications look awfully like candy.

Each year, more than 60,000 young children nationwide are treated in emergency rooms after getting into medicine while their parents or caregivers aren’t looking. It’s estimated that every 30 seconds a poison control center receives a call about a child being accidentally exposed to a poison – with nearly 50% of those poisons being some type fo medication. Scary, right? As much as we would like to watch them all the time, it just isn’t possible. If you have young children in your home, here are some important safety tips from the National Safety Council that can help you prevent a potentially tragic accident:

• Store medicines out of reach and sight of young children. Consider putting a childproof lock or catch on the cabinet with your medicines, or better yet, keep all medications in a lockbox or put a lock on a cabinet.
• Put medicines and vitamins away EVERY time you use them. Don’t rely on ‘childproof’ caps to keep your children safe. Toddlers can be creative. A cap can fail.
• With children who are old enough to understand, explain what medicine is, and why they should never try to take any on their own. Do not tell a child that medicine is candy in an effort to get them to take it.
• Is grandma coming to visit? Ask her, grandpa and any other visitors to keep medicines out of reach and sight of children while they are in your home.
• Safely dispose of old medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter varieties.
• Do not take your medicine in front of young children.
• Be vigilant when you visit other people’s homes with your children.
• Remind anyone who comes into contact with your children (babysitters, grandparents and other visitors) to keep purses, bags or jackets that have medicines in them out of sight and away from children’s reach.
• Younger children aren’t the only ones at risk. Locking up your medication keeps older children, pre-teens and teenagers from accessing them as well. The fastest-growing drug problem nationwide is prescription drug abuse by teens.

We value you and your family. We want to do everything we can to help protect your family from accidents that could easily be avoided.