If you’re like most of us, you detest those darn child-proof caps that come on every medication. In fact, you may have tossed the troublesome lids. And you may be in the habit of keeping your medications on bedside tables or other easily reachable places. You should know, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 80 percent of emergency room visits are from medication overdose among kids 12 and under, usually because they were curious when they found medicines that resembled candy. That’s the equivalent of four busloads of kids, every single day, in the emergency room for accidentally swallowing medication.
Where do kids find the meds? The CDC says:
• 27 percent find them on the ground or misplaced
• 20 percent in a purse
• 20 percent in a dresser or night stand
• 15 percent in a pillbox
• The remainder in a cabinet, or “other.”
Some experts recommend you actually do a count of your pills before the kids arrive, just in case you need to tell a doctor how many might’ve been ingested.
