Store medicines safely
Young kids love exploring. Store medicines up, away, and out of sight.
Young children are energetic, unstoppable explorers. Everything within reach is a potential treasure—a visitor's purse, a tube of diaper cream, a medicine bottle on a nightstand. Find out which safe storage tips you already follow and which new ones you may want to try.
Here are ways to help ensure your kids don’t get their hands on medicines:
Put all medicines, including your own, up and away and out of sight. In 86% of emergency room visits for medicine poisoning, the child got into medicine belonging to an adult.
Consider places where kids get into medicine. Kids get into medication in all sorts of places, like in purses and nightstands. Place purses and bags in high locations, and avoid leaving medicines on a nightstand or dresser.
Consider products you might not think about as medicines. Health products such as vitamins, diaper-rash creams, eye drops, and even hand sanitizers can be harmful if kids get into them. Store these items up, away, and out of sight, just as you would traditional medicines.
Close your medicine caps tightly after each use. Choose child-resistant caps for medicine bottles when you can. And remember, child-resistant does not mean childproof. So make sure you close the container tightly after each use and put the medicine away.
Be alert to visitors’ medicine. Well-meaning visitors may not be thinking about the medicines they have brought with them. When you have guests in your home, offer to put purses, bags, and coats out of reach of children to protect their property from a curious child.
Be alert to medicine in places your child visits. You know to store medicines safely in your home, but also think about medicine safety when your child isn't at home. Ask people your child visits to put their medicines in a safe place, or take a look around to make sure you don't see any medicines within reach.
Put medicine away after every use. Even if you’ll need another dose in a few hours, resist the urge to keep the medicine handy. Put it up and away after each dose.