Over-the-counter and prescription medications can improve and even save lives. But medications can be dangerous when misused. This is especially true for young kids and teens.
More than 70,000 children go to the emergency department due to medication poisoning every year. In many of these cases, the poisoning is due to a child taking medicine belonging to an adult. Children visit emergency departments twice as often for medication poisoning than for poisonings from household products. [Trust for America’s Health, Prescription Drug Abuse: Strategies to Stop the Epidemic, 2013]
If you have kids or teens, secure your medications. You can do this by placing medicines out of reach and by using lock bottles.
Secure all of your medications, even supplements, and minor malady controls like antacids, over-the-counter pain controls, and diarrhea controls. Children are curious by nature. Keeping your medications in lock bottles and out of their reach helps ensure that your kids won’t have easy access to them. Lock bottles prevent young children from accidentally ingesting your medications, and prevent teens from sampling your medications without your knowledge.
Lock bottles are great for home use and when traveling. The combination lock helps ensure that only you can access your medications. The small size means they are convenient when you need to carry your medications with you, whether traveling or just in your daily life. Compact medicine lock bottles can easily be stored in bags, purses, backpacks, and briefcases.
