Keep Children Safe: Store Medication Safely While at Home and On-the-Go
You and your loved ones take prescription and over-the-counter medications to feel well and stay well. However, medicines and vitamins can cause harm if taken the wrong way or by the wrong person. Here’s how you can protect your little ones while at home and when traveling.
Story Medicine at Home:
Store medicine in a safe location that is too high for children to reach or see.
Never leave medicine or vitamin bottles on a table, countertop or nightstand, even if the safety cap is locked.
Always properly relock the safety cap on the medicine bottle and store it safely after each use.
Teach your children about medicine safety, including what it is and why a trusted adult must provide it to them.
Never tell children medicine is like candy, even if they resist taking it.
Remind family members and guests to keep purses, bags or coats that have medicines stored in them in a safe and secure place.
Storing Medicine for Travel:
Keep medicines in their original child-resistant containers.
While staying in a hotel, secure medicines and vitamins up, away and out of children’s reach, such as in a safe.
When you are a guest in another person’s home, ask where you can safely store medicines and vitamins.
Finally, it is important to know that medication dosing errors bring thousands of children to emergency rooms annually. To help prevent children from receiving too high or too low a dose, read the medication label carefully and follow the instructions precisely. If you have any questions or do not understand the instructions, consult your pharmacist or doctor first.
Above all, be prepared in case of an emergency and stay calm. If you think a child may have ingested a medicine or vitamin, call 800.222.1222 to connect to your local poison center. Be sure to save this number in your phones and to provide it to all caregivers.
Fortunately, by increasing public awareness of these important medication storage tips, we can all help keep children safe and healthy.
For more information, please visit https://poisonhelp.hrsa.gov/resources/toolkits.
Pacific Federal is a subsidiary of Zenith American Solutions.
