August 2025
If you’re a parent or caregiver of young children, you may know they have a way of getting into everything. When it comes to prescription and over-the-counter medicine, that can spell trouble fast.
In young children, unintentional medication overdoses are the leading cause of emergency department (ED) visits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each year, children under the age of five account for some 35,000 ED visits from unintentional medication overdoses — including one out of every 250 two-year-olds. Most often, this happens after they find and eat or drink medicines when their caregivers aren’t looking.
Medication errors — giving your child more medication than they need or giving it too often — account for 5% of ED overdose visits in children under the age of five. Older children are at risk, too.
Tips to prevent medication overdose
The good news is that you can help prevent accidental overdose. Here’s how:
- Ask for safety caps at the pharmacy counter when filling a prescription.
- Make sure the safety cap is locked. If the medicine has a locking cap that turns, twist it until the click is heard — and then confirm that you can’t unscrew it if you’re not simultaneously pressing down.
- Find a storage place that’s too high for a child to reach or see.
- Put medicines and vitamins away every time you use them. Never leave them out on a kitchen counter or at a sick child’s bedside, even if you have to give the medicine again in a few hours.
- Teach children about medicine safety. Never tell children that medicine is candy to get them to take it, even if the child does not like to take medicine.
- Ask visitors to keep purses, bags, or coats that have medicines in them up and out of sight when visiting.
- Keep prescription opioid pain medication in a locked cabinet.
- Keep track of how much pain medicine is in the container so you can tell if someone else is taking any.
- Be prepared. Add the poison control number for the National Capital Poison Center to all family members’ phones (800-222-1222). You can also get help online.
- Call 911 right away if your child collapses, has a seizure, has trouble breathing, or can’t be awakened.
