Here at Kearney Park Compounding Pharmacy, we always make it a point to have our customers not only have immediate and convenient access to medicine, but also to have them properly manage and organize their medication as well. This is why we also urge parents to address the risk of children reaching and unknowingly consuming the wrong medicine.

In the country alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claimed that more than 60,000 kids end up in the emergency room annually because of accidental consumption of medicines. This number only goes to show that the good old medicine cabinet and child-resistant packaging of medicines and vitamins are no longer enough.

Below are some tips in child-proofing your medicine.

It is true what they say: out of sight, out of mind. One of the best ways to keep medicine away from kids is to make sure that they are placed in shelves or storage places that are too high for them to even see. Given their age of curiosity, take double precautions by seeing to it that they don’t have access to ladders and that they can’t reach the high storage space with chairs.

Organization is the key to a safe and well-stocked medicine cabinet. You can have a child-lock or a simple padlock in the cabinet or box and place highly-sensitive medicines in another locked container for padded security. It is important that you keep all medicines, ointments, vitamins, and supplements properly labelled and even arranged according to classification. Many parents take the extra effort to highlight their expiration dates.

One of the most common reasons why children consume the wrong medicine is that, they see them as potential candy. Prevent this by teaching them that medicine is medicine, not a sweet treat. Also, don’t let your kids play doctor with real medication.