CDC Message: Practice Safe Medicine Storage Habits While Preparing for This Fall and Winter Virus Season
Published December 2, 2024
During fall and winter, when many of us are preparing for the holidays, we are also preparing for viral infections that go around. This time of year is a good time to remember to keep all medicines up and away and out of reach and sight of young children. This includes putting vitamins and other supplements, including those in gummy form, up and away too. Each year approximately 35,000 young childrenare rushed to the emergency room because they got into medicines that were left within reach.
Keep young children safe! Parents, grandparents, and other caregivers can follow these tips to safely store medicines:
Store medicines in a safe location that is too high for young children to reach or see.
Never leave medicines or supplements out on a kitchen counter or at a sick child’s bedside, even if you must give the medicine again in a few hours.
Always relock the safety cap on a medicine bottle. If it has a locking cap that turns, twist it until you can’t twist anymore or until you hear the “click.”
Tell children what medicine is and why you or another trusted caregiver must be the one to give it to them.
Never tell children medicine is candy, even if they don’t like to take their medicine.
Remind houseguests, babysitters, and other visitors to keep purses, bags, or coats that have medicines in them up and away and out of reach and sight when they’re in your home.
Call Poison Help at 800.222.1222 (or go to their website) right away if you think your child might have gotten into a medicine, vitamin, or other supplement, including those in gummy form, even if you are not completely sure.
For more medicine safety tips, visit the PROTECT Initiative’s up and away educational resources in English or Spanish.
Watch a short video on storing medicines up and away and out of sight and reach of children.
Get more Medication Safety news and updates by signing up for CDC emails here: Medication Safety News.
More Safety Articles
Preparing for a Virtual Appointment with Your Doctor
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many doctors have switched from in-person appointments to virtual appointments with their patients using the phone or a computer video call. Virtual appointments, also known as telemedicine, can usually replace in-person visits effectively for consultations and for examinations that do not require close physical contact. They allow doctors to provide clinical services to their patients using electronic communications, without requiring patients to come into the office. Doctors are doing this to maintain physical distancing because COVID-19 can easily be spread from one person to another. Hospitals and clinics are also using telemedicine to communicate with patients and families.
Most people realize human error can happen, including when getting a prescription filled at the pharmacy. Although pharmacists do their best, mistakes sometimes happen. Thanks to safer medicine labels and technologies like barcode scanning, mistakes of the past are rapidly declining. The few pharmacy errors that do slip by usually do not cause serious or permanent harm. Still, that’s little consolation to a consumer who is harmed or could have been harmed if a more serious error had happened.
.png)