Keeping Your Medicine Cabinet Safe For Your Kids
by Alison Rhodes

Over the past year, we’ve seen many over-the-counter medications being discontinued for babies and toddlers. Inaccurate dosing was one of the reasons that some of the drug manufacturers recalled their infant cold medicines.

This is just one confusing issue moms face when giving medications to their child. Often times, moms are distracted while the pediatrician is prescribing medicine and may not hear or remember all of the recommendations for when to take the medicine, or potentially dangerous interactions with other medications and symptoms of a bad reaction.

There are a few things, however, that moms can do to better manage their family’s medications:

• Create a color code
  Place brightly colored stickers on each medication. Assign a different color for every family member.

• Keep a calendar
  It's easy to forget to give a dose of medicine to your child as you're running out the door for school and work. Clip a calendar to the refrigerator or cabinet to check off after every dose.

• Stay organized
  Usually mom is the gatekeeper for her family's medications. Sign up for a free service such as MedNotes on www.drugs.com to create individual medication lists, receive warnings about a particular medication and get information on potential drug interactions. You can also create printable personal health and medication records.

• Lock it away
  Be sure to keep all medications high up in a locked cabinet where kids can't reach them.

• Talk to your pediatrician
  If you suspect that your child is having a potentially dangerous reaction to a drug call your pediatrician immediately. Also, become your child's advocate and bring up to your pediatrician any concerns you have about a particular drug or whether you believe it is not helping your child.