New Mom’s Guide to Medication Safety in a Home with Children

medication safety and children

How important is medication safety in a home with children?

If you’re a stay at home mom with little kids running around, I’m sure you see how much of a mess they can get into. As a new mom or an expecting mom, maybe you haven’t gotten to this stage yet with your kids. You will get to a point where you need to start baby proofing the house. However, medication safety should start way before you baby proof the house.

As a pharmacy student, we were drilled in our classes about all types of medication safety. Now, as a pharmacist AND MOM, I feel that it’s very important to talk about medication safety to help you feel prepared and keep your children (or even pets!) safe.

Stats on how many children are impacted by this

Before I talk about my advice or how you are able to safely store your medications, I think it’s important to tackle statistics. Children aren’t really getting prescription medications that they are managing on their own. So how are we seeing an increase in issues with children and medication? This comes from accidentally ingesting things found at home. At one point this came from cough and cold medications, which had to undergo a change in their labeling to allow for correct and protective administration of the over the counter medication.

Looking at the Poison Control Center’s calls and statistics, they report that a lot of calls were for children under 2 years old. In 2021 ‘The highest incidence occurred in one- and two-year-olds, with 6,439 and 5,997 exposures/100,000 children in the respective age groups. ‘ It’s important to realize that at any time this could be a child we know or even our own. Prioritize safety so that your child doesn’t become a statistic.

Ways to increase medication safety

The obvious ways are to keep the medication is a safe location. This might be somewhere up high where the kids can’t reach. Or lock it away where the children can’t access it. Teach the children when they are older to not put medications into their mouths. This also applies to other things like detergents, soaps, or little pods.

If you suspect that your child or pet has ingested something they shouldn’t have, call the poison control center immediately (1-800-222-1222). It’s better to be safe than sorry. Some medications can be traced to see how much is in your blood (at the hospital), but others aren’t able to be identified except by symptoms the child might have at that point. The Poison Control Center has a lot of great information on what to do if a person isn’t in ‘immediate danger’ with symptoms – check it out here.

I would keep my medications in the childproof containers that they come in (if they are loose pills/capsules/etc). The amber bottles design is to make sure that a majority of children CANNOT open it, but that the majority of adults can.

Medications to be wary of around children

Medications that are harmful if your child gets it are both prescription and over the counter medications. Other household items can be dangerous if ingested in large quantities or the items might cause serious adverse issues. Some of these items include swallowing large amounts of mouthwash, cleaning products, liquid car supplies, energy drinks, and more. Also consider button batteries!

Tylenol and other medications you can get over the counter for pain are some common medications that adults go to the ER for because of overdose. If something is a flavored liquid, it’s easier for children to ingest. Some herbs and supplements can also cause a lot of issues with children because they can reach the toxic level quicker than an adult.

Advice as a pharmacist momma

  • Always store your medications somewhere high or somewhere locked so the kids can’t get into it
  • Side note on medication storage: never store your medications in the bathroom – the moisture can deteriorate the medications over time
  • Immediately call poison control if you think someone ingested a non food item
    • the poison control number is 1-800-222-1222
    • you can also access them online
  • Once the kids are at an age where they understand safety rules, teach them how to be safe with medications. Sometimes medications can fall on the floor and kids are naturally curious. Some medications also look like candy or come in liquid form, so be mindful of that too.
  • This is not medical advise, please refer to your providers and resources on what exactly to do in an emergency situation.
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