In 2005, three year old twins, Chloe and Kevin Jr., climbed onto a kitchen counter and reached into a high cabinet. They quickly removed the childproof cap from a prescription bottle they found and swallowed the pills. The twins were quickly rushed to the hospital and fell into a coma. Kevin Jr. survived the accidental overdose. Three year old Chloe did not.
The parents of Emily and Chloe never expected to lose a child to prescription medication. These tragedies are not uncommon. Every day children are victims of medication poisoning and overdose. Even vitamins pose a risk to children; iron overdose is one of the leading causes of child poisoning-related injury and death.
About 60,000 young children are brought to emergency rooms every year because they were able to get to medicines in their homes.
The horror of losing a child to medication poisoning can be prevented in your home. Locking medicine storage can save lives, and is an easy way to keep your family safe. Securing prescriptions and over the counter medicine, vitamins, and supplements is a responsible and easy way to reduce your risk of becoming a CDC poisoning statistic.
Securing medicine in your house can be as simple as replacing the existing bottles with locking prescription bottles that can only be opened by the person with the code. Childproof caps have been shown to be anything but secure, with toddlers as young as two able to quickly get them open.
Pills kept in purses, bags, or bedside tables can be a forgotten danger to young children. A locking pill bottle with a combination cap can help prevent curious young children from getting to pills and vitamins that look, and often even taste, like colorful candy.
Teens that typically make good decisions may be faced with a moment of weakness brought on by school stress, peer pressure, or even curiosity. It may not even be your teen who gives your prescription medicine a second look. A teenaged neighbor or relative may be tempted to take just one prescription pill from a bottle that is easily available, and unattended, on a counter or in a bathroom medicine cabinet.
That one pill, one wrong decision, could be their last.
You can help save a life by taking steps to ensure your medications don’t end up in the hands of children. Use a locking storage option to help prevent children from accessing medicine and supplements. Even when locked, always store medications up, away, and out of sight of children. You can help protect your family from a senseless, and avoidable, tragedy.
