More Children Poisoned by Medicines

Childhood poisonings are going down overall in the U.S., but the proportion attributed to kids getting into medicine is rising. Medication overdoses account for over two-thirds of all childhood poisoning. That’s more than 70,000 emergency department visits each year. In four-fifths of the cases, children helped themselves to pills when adults were not watching. The rest of the time, adults miscalculated the dose or the timing of medicine for the child. Pre-schoolers account for the lion’s share of these medication misadventures, about 80 percent. Even with child-resistant caps, it is still important to keep drugs where kids can’t reach them.
[American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Sept., 2009]
http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/S0749-3797(09)00389-4/abstract