Transcript Poisoning in Young Children PowerPoint

Unintentional
Medication Poisoning
In Very Young Children
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Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control, under contract number 200-2012-M-52649.
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Unsupervised Ingestions
• Each year more than 60,000 young
children are treated in emergency
departments after getting into medicine
while adults were not looking
• In recent years, the number of
accidental overdoses in young children
has increased by 20 percent.
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Prevention
• Children are curious and put all sorts of
things in their mouths.
• Unsupervised ingestions are
preventable
• Safe medicine storage must be
practiced to prevent unsupervised
ingestions by young children
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Safe Practice Tips
• Store medicine in a safe location that is
too high to reach or see
• Always put every medicine and vitamin
away every time you use it
• Always relock the safety cap on a
medicine bottle
• Tell children what medicine is
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Safe Practice Tips
• Never tell children medicine is candy,
even if they do not like to take
medicine
• Remind babysitters, houseguests and
visitors in your home to keep purses,
bags or coats that have medicines in
them up and away and out of sight
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Safe Practice Tips
• Program the Poison Help number into
your home and cell phones so you
have it in case of an emergency:
1-800-222-1222
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Reminders for Adults
Suggestions to help adults remember to
take their medicine and vitamins when
no longer in plain view:
• Write yourself a note and put it where
you will see it
• Set a daily reminder for yourself
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Reminders for Adults
• Take your medicine and vitamins at the
same time every day, if possible
• Use a medicine log to keep track each
time you take or give medicine
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Simple Steps
• It is up to adults to make safe medicine
storage a priority
• A few simple steps, done every time,
can protect our children
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Additional Resources
• The PROTECT Initiative
http://www.cdc.gov/medicationsafety/protect/pr
otect_initiative.html
• Up and Away and Out of Sight
http://www.nsc.org/safety_home/HomeandRec
reationalSafety/Poisoning/Pages/Up-andAway.aspx
Support for this project was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, under contract number 200-2012-M-52649.
© 2013 National Safety Council
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