Three Words for Poison Prevention: Click, Up, and Away

December 20th, 2011 7:02 am ET - .

On Safety CPSC Stands For Safety

CLICK!
That’s the sound you often hear when you close the child-resistant cap on a medicine bottle.
Imagine this scenario: It’s the middle of the night and your sick child needs a dose of fever reducing medicine. You’re only half awake and caring for your child. You give your child the medicine and head back to bed.
CLICK. Did you hear it? Sometimes you won’t. But be sure the cap is closed tightly. Even in your most sleep-deprived hours, check the cap.

Hands closing a medicine bottle

Most emergency room visits for medication overdoses involving 2-year-olds happen after children find and eat or drink medicines when adults aren’t looking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And each year, the nation’s poison control centers field nearly 600,000 calls for young kids and medicines.

This is why you need to put the bottles UP and AWAY.

Like many parents, you may think child-resistant caps fully prevent children from opening medications. Wrong. Child-resistant caps simply give you more time to prevent children from getting into medicines.
The regulation that covers child-resistant packaging works. Since the Poison Prevention Packaging Act

was passed in 1970, there has been a 40% decline in aspirin poisonings alone with the use of child-resistant closures. That’s hundreds of children’s lives that have been saved.

Your vigilance can prevent the poisonings that continue to happen. Click, Up and Away.

Follow these steps to keep children safe around medicine:

Put the medicine up and away. Layers of protection are best. That means put it up in a cabinet or closet out of sight. Locks or child-resistant latches are recommended.
Never call medicine “candy.”
Ask for and use child-resistant closures on your medicines.
Keep medicines in their original containers. Don’t transfer them to bottles, day-minders, cups or non-child-resistant containers.
Take your medicines out of sight of young children, because young children tend to imitate adults.

Remember, young children will eat or drink almost anything. Poison prevention starts with you!
Read more consumer safety tips on CPSC’s OnSafety blog