4 Tips to Keep Kids Safe Around Medicine

Safe Kids Worldwide released a new research report that found kids are getting into medicine at an alarming rate. Every minute of every day, a poison control center receives a call about potential medicine poisoning for a child age 5 and under.

And 67,000 times each year, or every eight minutes, a young child goes to the emergency room for medicine poisoning. This is a 30 percent increase over the past ten years.

Safe Kids of Otsego County works to prevent unintentional childhood injury, the number one cause of death for children in the United States and is a member of Safe Kids Worldwide, a global network of organizations dedicated to preventing unintentional injury. For more information, visit safekids.org or call 607-547-4812.

Here are some tips to keep kids safe around medicine:

• Put medicine and vitamins up and away and out of sight. (In 67 percent of emergency room visits for medicine poisoning, the medicine was left within reach of the child, such as in a purse, on a counter, or under a sofa cushion.)
• Even if you are tempted to keep it handy, put medicine out of reach after every use. Look around your home for products you might not think about as medicine, like rubbing alcohol, eye drops or gummy vitamins, and store them out of the reach of children.
• When you have guests in your home, offer to put purses, bags and coats where kids can’t get to them. (In 43 percent of emergency room visits for medicine poisoning, the child got into medicine belonging to a relative, such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent.)
• Be alert to medicine in places your child visits. Take a look around to make sure there isn’t medicine within reach of your child.