Blog: Testimony of a Two-Year-Old

Posted by: Martha Wilcox at Mar 20, 2012 12:00 AM CDT

Keywords: Education

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Keep kids safe from medication poisoning

According to the family historian, I was not to be trusted.

At age two, I had been left alone for about a minute when I was discovered sitting in my parents' bedroom with a bottle of aspirin -- cap off, bottle upended, contents strewn about. (Clever girl!)

But instead of the anticipated expression of delight at my amazing accomplishment, my mother’s expression was quite the opposite. "Did you eat any of those?" she demanded, her face registering horror.

Well, any two-year-old who has been paying attention knows the answer to that question should be, "No," accompanied by an innocent expression, reinforced with a shake of the head for emphasis.

But any mom who has been paying attention wouldn't buy that answer, so I was whisked to the doctor to have my stomach pumped.

According to the family historian, I didn't like it.

Fortunately, today's two-year-olds find it harder to get into a bottle of aspirin thanks to child-resistant packaging. And, over the past fifty years, the life-saving work of Poison Control Centers has also helped dramatically decrease the death rate among children who accidentally ingest medication when a caregiver is not looking.

But here's a rather shocking trend. In 1979, one-third of all poisoning deaths among children in the U.S. were due to medications. Today, that number has doubled to two-thirds of all poisoning deaths. Why?

Perhaps the biggest reason is the proliferation of medicines in households today, increasing the opportunities for curious kids to get into danger. Last year about 60,000 children were sent to the emergency room because of an unintended exposure to medication. That’s 164 a day. And every one of those trips could have been avoided.

Here are three scenarios where bad things happen, even under the watch of diligent parents. (I have been guilty of all of these; maybe you have, too.)

Medications are usually stored safely up and away and out of sight, but when someone in the family is sick, the medication is pulled from the remote location and kept handy. “Handy” is good for convenience, but tempting for curious little ones.
Daily vitamins are kept on the counter as a helpful reminder, instead of locked away.
Parents of young children are often hyper-vigilant about medication storage, but the grandparents may not be. One study found that 20% of pediatric poisonings were caused by a grandparent’s medication. Those daily pill boxes that are so convenient for seniors are a cinch for kids to get into.

Do any of these situations ring true for you? Check out Safe Kids Worldwide’s Medication Safety Guide for tips on safe storage, safe dosing, safe disposal and safe seniors.

My family teases me that I was destined to work at Safe Kids Worldwide from the time I was two. I don't remember having my stomach pumped, but perhaps that's why today, deep in my gut, I feel driven to tell parents how to protect kids from preventable injuries. Visit Safe Kids often to learn what you need to know to keep your kids safe.

One last thing, just to set the record straight. According to the family historian, the stomach pumping revealed I was telling the truth.

More About Poison Prevention and Medication Safety

Watch Our Medication Safety Video

Comment on this Blog Post:

Posted by Hurma Akmyradova at: March 25, 2012

I have a two years old son and I am on daily medication and vitamin. This story reflects exactly how I live. If I put them out of sight I forget to take my medications and if I keep them on the counter, it becomes a reason of fight with my little one for all day long. Also, I want to mention that today's bottle of medicines are child-resistant, but the bottles of the over-the-counter vitamins are easy to get in, which are as dangerous as the medicines.

Posted by Kristene Onyskow at: March 23, 2012

This takes me to my own experience. I was 3 and my father used to drive a semitruck. My mom had just went down stairs to get something, by the time she came back up, I had a white powdery substance around my mouth. she totally freaked out, knowing my father had plenty of scarier stuff in his suitcase than aspirin. She called poison control, but once she had managed to calm me down I was able to show her what I had eaten, antacids. I am disabled and on plenty of scary stuff myself, and I do use the weekly pill sorters, but they are locked away and I have instilled a deep respect in my child for anything in a bottle. she has never ever had chewable vites or was ever allowed to pretend candies were "medicine" for her toys.

Posted by Suzanne Carlsen at: March 20, 2012

This story takes me back 22 years to the day this happened with my twins sons. Grandma was ill and had left the medicine bottle down (which she NEVER did) and failed to get the cap on secure. All I did was turn for a minute to get mother a drink of water and the boys helped themselves. The result was stomach pumping times 2!!