Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Medications can be poison risk for children
Medications can turn out to be a poison risk for children, according to a new study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The New York Times reports that this new study showed that twice as many children are poisoned with prescription medications as with household products.
Researchers estimate that 70,000 children under age 18 suffer from unintentional medication overdoses, compared to 30,000 for poisonings from household products. In 14% of hospitalizations, the parents accidentally overdosed the children and more than 75% of the overdoses were in children under age 5, according to the article.
The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and that the most commonly overdosed medication was acetaminophen, with opiad painkillers and benzoidiazepine antianxiety drugs second.
65 people are dying every day from unintentional poisoning, and the numbers are increasing. That is 23,618 people a year, and 703,700 were seen in emergency departments after an accidental poisoning and these rates increased by 62.5% from 1999 to 2004.
Facts about poisonings:
- 95% were from a drug poisoning, more than half due to prescription drugs
- poisoning affects children, adolescents, and adults, in increasing numbers
How to protect children from accidental medication poisoning
- Follow directions on labels when you give or take medicines.
- Keep medicines in their original bottles or containers.
- Never share or sell your prescription drugs to others, including family members.
- Keep any pain medications, such as methadone, hydrocodone, and oxycodone, in a safe place only reachable by people for whom use is prescribed.
- Monitor the use of medicines prescribed for children and teenagers, such as medicines for attention deficit disorder, or ADD.
- To avoid drug interactions, check with your doctor if you are taking more than one prescription medication at a time
- Follow federal guidelines for disposal of unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs.
- Keep medicines and toxic products, such as cleaning solutions, in locked or childproof cabinets.
- Put the nationwide poison control center phone number, 1-800-222-1222, on or near every telephone in your home and program it into your cellular phone.
- Call poison control if you think a child has been poisoned and if they are awake and alert. Call 911 if you have a poison emergency and your child has collapsed or is not breathing.
- Follow label directions and read all warnings when giving medicines to children.
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