4-year-old: Can I have some more of that yummy grape stuff?
Me: …grapes?
4-year-old: No! It’s in the bottle and it’s yummy!
Me, holding up liquid Ibuprofen: Your medicine?!
4-year-old: YES! I could eat that every day!
My daughter has a sweet tooth just like her Mama (and probably the onset of diabetes, thank you sugar), but I never realized she looked at medicine as a dessert. I mean, it definitely helps that she likes the taste when doling out a dose for a fever, but the fact that she requested it as a snack was a little disconcerting.
Especially because those child-proof locks weren’t made with MY child in mind. She and her brother learned the art of the push down and twist much too quickly, and at the age of independence, they want to do everything themselves. The other day I walked into the kitchen to find them making their own breakfast. Which is to say, making a huge mess, but I digress.
June is National Home Safety Month and I hope you’ll join me in making sure our “Me do!” kids aren’t mingling with our meds.
Did you know that every year, 60,000 children head to the ER because of accidental medicine ingestion? That’s FOUR busloads of kids every day!
So why talk about it now, in the heart of summer? Because summer means vacations and visitors and breaking routine to enjoy family and friends. Summer is also allergies galore if you live in my house, which means we’ve got pills and eye drops and nasal sprays piled high on counter tops for easy access. Convenient to grab and go, but not so safe.
I’ve stolen ideas from the CHPA’s site Up & Away to help me remember to properly and safely store our medicines. You should steal them, too:
Remember, medicines aren’t just pills; they’re vitamins and sprays and drops and even prescription lotions and ointments. Lookin’ at you, toddlers who think everything is food. Young kids don’t necessarily like the word NO! Heck, I’m 34-years-old and *I* don’t like the word, which is why we function better under the “out of sight, out of mind” mantra. If kids can’t see’em, chances are they’ll forget’em. So put those meds up high, out of reach. Then come over to my place and clean up this kitchen. Blackberry stained counter tops: it’s what’s for breakfast.
I always enjoyed pepto-bismal pills. I thought they tasted like those round pink candies my grandma always had in a jar at her house.
It’s good to know that you’re not having a hard time giving medicine to your kids though. I remember I hated medicines growing up. I didn’t like the taste at all. lol. Thank you for sharing your tips on how to keep medicines. Will definitely keep that in mind!