Children are highly vulnerable to infections owing to their outdoor play and lifestyle which exposes them to a lot of medicines. Therefore, parents have to be cautious of providing the right dosage of drugs to kids. A startling report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that each year, one in every set of 150 children aged 2 apparently visited the emergency department due to drug overdoses.
This overdose primarily took place due to lack of adult supervision. Many initiatives like child-resistant packaging, Up and Away and Out of Sight educational program, PROTECT Initiative sought to prohibit inadvertent medicine overdoses in children.
Dan Budnitz, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s Medication Safety Program, commented, “Parents may not be aware of the danger posed by leaving medications where young children can reach them. In recent years, the number of accidental overdoses in young children has increased by 20 percent.”
The team has put forward some tips for children and guardians with regards to unintentional drug overdoses. Firstly, kids should not be able to reach the medicines and old drugs should be discarded after use. Also, parents have to check the lock of the safety cap in drug packages. Telling kids that the tablet is not a medicine but a cookie to make them consume the drug may not be a good idea either.
The scientists are working towards improving the packaging of medicines to avoid adverse circumstances among children. However, they cautioned that no medication box could be considered thoroughly childproof, but following these simple safety measures may eventually help.