Watch What You Do, Because They’re Watching Us

Whatever we do as parents, our children are watching us.  And that includes taking pills such as prescription and over-the-counter medication.  Over the last several years, the number of poisoned children visiting the ER has steadily increased.  This month’s Journal of Pediatrics, reports that more than 500,000 children age five and younger are exposed to medication in an unintended manner every year. The vast majority of these are “self-ingestion” events in which children take the medication themselves, and this occurs with both prescription medications as well as over-the-counter products, including supplements.  Unfortunately many of these children end up admitted to the hospital, seriously hurt or even dead.  Fortunately this is something easily remedied and prevented: keep your medication out of the reach of children, package and secure it tightly, and make sure anyone else taking medications does the same.

The Growing Impact of Pediatric Pharmaceutical Poisoning, http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476%2811%2900771-2/fulltext).