Parents Urged to Keep Medications and Chemicals Out of Children’s Reach

As the summer holidays approach, parents are being implored to properly store medication and household chemicals to prevent them from being ingested by children.

Health Promotion and Education Officer for Westmoreland, Gerald Miller, in making the call, said that accidental poisoning among children remains an issue.

“While we are seeing fewer cases in comparison to previous years, we are still seeing children being affected by this issue. So, we want to continue to remind our parents, caregivers and guardians, to ensure they don’t put tablets, ant powder, rat poison, anything that is harmful to the child in a space where the child [has] access to,” he said in an interview with JIS News.

“We have to find ways to prevent them from harming themselves by ingesting these substances. Given the fact that they are going to be on summer holidays in a little while, it becomes even more important for us to be vigilant and to ensure we don’t have anything around the household that the children can have access to,” he stressed.

Mr. Miller said that medication, even if prescribed, should not be in the reach of children, especially those less than five years old.

“Remember at that age group they are very oral, so everything they put in their mouths and so we have to make sure we do not have tablets [out]. Remember some of these tablets look like sweets and so the children will gravitate towards them,” he pointed out.

Parents [should] find containers that can be locked. If you don’t have the sophisticated lockers to lock it away, put it (medication) somewhere that is elevated where the child will not be able to have access to it, even by [climbing] a chair,” he advised.

Mr. Miller also warned persons to properly store bleach and other chemicals to prevent accidental poisoning in children.