Up And Away: National Poison Prevention Week

How do you store medicine in your home? Are you practicing safe medicine storage habits to keep your children safe and prevent accidental ingestion?

Fortunately I never had an instance when a child ingested medicine, but there has been moments when it got really close. In the blink of an eye, a baby or child can ingest pills or liquid that can be poisonous. This week is National Poison Prevention Week and also the first week of spring, which is the perfect time for reevaluating the safety of your medicine cabinet.

I like to simplify many parts of my life, but it’s difficult to do so with my medicine cabinet. With three kids and two dogs, my medicine cabinet is always stocked with all kinds of medications that are essential for any large family. From fever reducers, allergy medicine to bandages, I have most major medicines on hand in case of an emergency.

If you’re like me, you probably have a medicine cabinet full of necessary medicines for the entire family.

What’s more important than keeping your medicine cabinet well stocked is its storage. Because these medicine can be toxic to children, it’s imperative that we are mindful of which space we designate as a medicine cabinet and how we store the medications.

According to SafeKids, there’s a call to a poison control center almost every minute because a young child got into a medicine. This means millions of children are still being exposed to the harmful risks of being poisoned by medicine and other household products.

This is our medicine cabinet. As you can see, we designated a safe storage space for our medicine by placing it high and out of the kids’ reach. Our medicine cabinet is placed above the microwave and we can’t reach it without a step stool. This makes our medicine cabinet harder to access, but this extra precaution gives me a peace of mind knowing that I’m keeping my kids safe from accidental ingestion.

Here are some more interesting facts provided by KnowYourOTC’s.

• Approximately 60,000 kids go to the ER every year because they got into medicines that were left within reach (this equals 4 school bus loads of kids every day).
• According to SafeKids, “7 in 10 parents report storing medicine within a child’s sight. Nearly 5 in 10 parents leave medicine out in a visible location between doses when their kids are sick.”

In addition to the parents practicing safe medicine storage habits, parents must also teach their children what medicine is and that only a parent or caregiver should give it to them.  Parents should never tell them that medicine, including vitamins, are candy even if they don’t like to take it.

Parents should never tell them that medicine, including vitamins, are candy even if they don’t like to take it.

So today, KnowYourOTC’s and I would like to remind you to set aside time this week to double check that your medicines are safely store up, away and out of sight of kids. This isn’t just important when you’re at home but also when you are traveling and have medicines in your suitcase or purse. Also don’t forget to consider these safety tips when staying with your friends and family, especially grandparents.

Lastly, always be prepared for an emergency by saving the free Poison Helpline number into your phone: 1-800-222-1222

Always be prepared for an emergency by saving the free Poison Helpline number into your phone: 1-800-222-1222.

How does your medicine cabinet look today? Are you practicing safe medicine storage habits? For more information and tips, check out Up & Away

Save The Date

On Wednesday, March 21 at 1pm ET, KYOTC’s will host a session called “Safe Medicine Storage: Keeping Kids Healthy & Safe this spring” on Facebook Live. Viewers will have a chance to ask Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson of Seattle Children’s Hospital and Seattle Mama Doc questions during this session.  You can find the Facebook Live here.