Storing Your Child’s Medicine
Inappropriately storing your child’s medicine or missing an expiration date can have dangerous implications on your child’s health. Here are a few tips on how to safely store your child’s medicine to avoid poisoning:
- Always store medicine in a locked cabinet, and out of the reach of children. Even items that seem harmless, such as mouthwash, can be extremely dangerous if ingested in large quantities by children.
- Never leave medicine bottles on kitchen tables, countertops, bedside tables, dresser tops, or even your purse.
- Humidity in the bathroom can impact how the medicine works so it’s best to store it in another room in the house.
- Always keep pills and liquid medications in their original containers.
- Close your medicine caps tightly after every use. Don’t rely on “child-resistant packaging” as something your child cannot get into. Child-resistant does not mean childproof.
- Check the medicine’s expiration date regularly and throw out anything with an expired date or that is not being used anymore by your child.
- The safest way to dispose of medicine is to contact your community’s medicine take-back program.
- Finally, never tell a child that a medicine tastes like candy!
It’s best to start teaching your kids about medication safety as soon as they’re old enough to understand. Explain to your child why he or she needs the medication, read the instructions out loud, and discuss what might happen if the medicine is taken inappropriately.
- Call 911 immediately, if you suspect drug poisoning in your child.
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