Prevent Accidental Medication Overdoses in Kids — Keep Your Medicines Up and Away
Published March 21, 2023 (current as of December 31, 2024)
As a parent or caregiver, you may wish you could be everywhere at once — but we all know that’s impossible. When kids get into something they’re not supposed to, like medicines, vitamins, or supplements, there’s a good chance you’ll be in another room or distracted and unable to stop them. That’s why it’s so important to keep medicines out of the sight and reach of young children — and to put medicines away right after you use them, every time.
Here's what you can do:
✔Put medicines and vitamins up and away – out of reach and out of sight
Children are curious and put all sorts of things in their mouths. Even if you turn your back for less than a minute, they can quickly get into things that could hurt them.
Pick a storage place in your home that your child cannot reach or see. Different families will have different places. Walk around your house and decide on the safest place to keep your medicines and vitamins.
✔Put medicines and vitamins away every time
This includes medicines and vitamins you use every day. Never leave them out on a kitchen counter or at a sick child’s bedside, even if you have to give the medicine again in a few hours.
✔Hear the click to make sure the safety cap is locked
Always relock the cap on a medicine bottle. If the bottle has a locking cap that turns, twist it until you hear the click. Remember, even though many medicines have safety caps, children may be able to open them. Every medicine and vitamin must be stored up and away and out of children’s reach and sight.
✔Teach your children about medicine safety
Teach your children what medicine is and why you must be the one to give it to them. Never tell children medicine is candy to get them to take it, even if your child doesn’t like to take his or her medicine.
✔Tell your guests about medicine safety
Ask houseguests and visitors to keep purses, bags, or coats that have medicine in them up and away and out of sight when they are in your home.
✔Be prepared in case of an emergency
Call your poison control center at 800.222.1222 right away if you think your child might have gotten into a medicine or vitamin.
Program the Poison Control number into your home and cell phones so you will have it when you need it.
For more ways to learn how to keep medicines somewhere safe visit: UpAndAway.org.
Do you use an inhaler? If so, always replace its cap after use. The importance of replacing caps on inhalers was recently illustrated when a woman accidentally inhaled a small earring while using her asthma medicine. She got her uncapped inhaler from her purse. As she inhaled the medicine, she felt a painful scratch in her throat and started coughing blood. She was taken to the emergency department, where the earring was removed from her lung. If the inhaler's cap had been in place, the loose earring in her purse would not have gotten into the inhaler.
A woman accidentally put ear wax removal drops (carbamide peroxide 6.5%) into her eye. This caused irritation and redness that persisted after rinsing her eye with water for 15 minutes. The bottle of ear wax removal drops (Figure 1) looks like a container used for eye drops. A warning that the drops are for the ears only is not on the front of the bottle (and carton) label. On the back of the carton, it says, “When using this product, do not get into eyes” in the Drug Facts table, but it does not stand out. This is mentioned on the side of the bottle, but the warning is buried in the middle of a paragraph in very small print.
On October 14, 2011, The New York Times published a story about a 13- month-old boy who died after swallowing pills from a prescription medicine bottle. His parents had given him the bottle to play with as a rattle, believing he could not open the child-resistant cap.
.png)