Household Safety: Medications, Poisons, and Other Hazards

This webpage includes several resources on safety and medications.

This 20-page report provides an analysis of data from the National Poison Data System to better understand what types of medicine children are getting into and how it happens.  Top tips to keep children safe (handout) is on page 4.

This website provides general information about medication safety for children. It includes information about dosing safety, mixing food with medication, and helping children take medicine.

Children under age five are at a high risk for experiencing adverse drug events. This website provides information about the cause and suggestions to prevent adverse drug events.

Proper storage of medications is an important safety precaution that should be practiced to help keep young children safe. This website provides steps for parents to take to prevent medication-related accidents.

This website provides one-page fact sheets that highlight the impact of the opioid crisis on children in the United States. Organized by U.S. states, these factsheets provide statistics and tips for what can be done to prevent child exposure to opioids.

Young children do not understand the harmful effects of medication and other dangerous substances, so parents must be cautious. This website provides safety tips and a list of dangerous products that caregivers should keep out of reach of children.

This simple infographic explains the risk of children having access to medication and provides ways for families to decrease the risk of adverse drug events.

This research report includes information about the prevalence, causes, and prevention of medication poisoning in children.

This simple infographic explains information parents should know about keeping medications safe from children, as well as common mistakes parents make in medication storage.

Children between one and five years old are at risk of death due to exposure to liquid nicotine. This article stresses the importance of keeping these products out of reach of children.

While families are staying in a hotel or at a friend’s home, it may be more difficult to keep medicine safe from children. This one-page tip sheet provides steps parents can take to prevent their child from accessing medication while away from home.

Medication poisoning is one of the leading causes for emergency room visits for children under five years. This five-minute podcast discusses the dangers of drug poisonings and ways to prevent them in young children.

This website provides family guides (available in a variety of languages) about medication safety. The website also has videos, a game, and a digital storybook that provides more information about medication safety.

In this report, practitioners discuss how Head Start is addressing the opioid crisis within communities. The report also includes recommendations for intervention based on Head Start’s successful models.

This one-minute video clip provides information about the dangers of child access to medications. It provides steps for parents to help keep their children safe.

Dr. Dan Budnitz visits Coffee with America to talk about dangers relating to children and medication. In this five-minute video, Dr. Budnitz talks about the risks and preventive measures of medication overdoses.

This one-minute video provides tips on how parents can ensure they are safely using over-the-counter medicine with their children.

This interactive game challenges the player to look at two pictures and choose which one is a medicine/pill and which one is candy. The purpose of this game is to encourage adults to keep medications and other harmful substances out of reach of children.

Easily accessible online, this children’s book story teaches children about the importance of medicine safety.

This webinar focuses on the impact of prenatal exposure to opiates. The presenter talks about early childhood learning and behavior and intervention strategies that can promote long-term growth and development for children exposed to opiates in the prenatal period. There is also a handout that supplements the webinar.

A study from the Tennessee Department of Health found that children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) were more likely to have a developmental delay or speech or language impairment in early childhood compared to children born without NAS. NAS is a serious withdrawal syndrome that can occur in newborns after exposure to opioids during pregnancy.

This guide sheds light on the most effective medications for specific disorders, as well as how to know if your child is getting the right dose and how and when children should be weaning off medication.

This organization provides expert telephone treatment, public education, and focused research related to poison incidence and injuries.

This is a nonprofit organization that works hard to keep children safe from injury, including adverse drug events. The website provides tip-sheets, videos, infographics, research reports, and other helpful resources for parents and community members.