Thank you to Up and Away for sponsoring this post!
Toddlers get into EVERYTHING! It’s like a common joke “Who needs toys when you have Mom’s plastic mixing bowls?” And that’s the truth!
My toddler would much rather play with things in my kitchen (and bathroom) cabinets than the plethora of toys made just for him.
So, I let him.
He goes through my cabinets and pantry and finds all sorts of neat bowels, spoons, and empty containers to stack and bang together. It’s great fun, and it’s good healthy play that teaches him a lot of neat concepts.
I also allow him to go through my purse from time to time, especially when we are waiting at the Dr.’s office or grocery shopping. It keeps him entertained and happy.
I do make sure that I don’t keep any dangerous chemicals or sharp objects in my purse, and I put child safety locks on the cabinets that have potentially harmful things.
Child safety is important to me. I lock up dangerous chemicals and keep them up high. I supervise my kids most of the time (hey I have to take potty breaks now and again), and I make sure that small choking hazards are out of reach. If my child is playing with something kind of dangerous…like that plastic bag up there…I don’t leave his side.
I’m being totally safe.
Well, I thought so…
Recently I was approached by the Up and Away educational program asking me to do a post about keeping kids safe from medicines. Now, I don’t do a lot of sponsored posts and I’m pretty picky about what brands I do sponsor. But once I started doing some research about this, I discovered that I wasn’t being as safe as I thought I was…and that I’m probably not the only one.
I admit, this infographic concerned me a bit.
I read this, and looked around my own kitchen. I saw three bottles on the counter top, two bottles of vitamins, and one bottle of pain reliever. They are sitting out of reach from my kids…kind of.
But in reality, it won’t take long for this one to figure out he can move that chair over to the counter and reach anything he wants.
Then I look in my purse, you know the one I let my toddler explore, I found a bottle of pain meds in there too.
Now, I’m not usually an overly cautious parent. I let my kids play with balloons, and I’m not afraid of a little playdough or paint being eaten. But, ingesting medicines is really bad, and I wasn’t being all that safe about it.
I figured that if I’m not being safe, that maybe you’re not either. Even if you’re not as dense as me and your medicines are put “away” I highly suggest you read this medicine safe storage tips just to make sure they are safe from your kids.
Oh, and another thing I learned during my research is that 38% of the time it’s the grandparent’s medications that children are finding and ingesting. So, even if you’re being safe, their grandparents may not be.
So you might want to have a conversation about that the next time you drop your kiddos off at the grandparent’s house.
Now, I dare you to take a look around your house and see where your medications are…you might be surprised!
Other Posts Like This
When Kids Get Lost: Keeping Children Safe in Public
Join the thousands of others who subscribe to our weekly newsletter, so you can stay up to date with everything happening on Dirt and Boogers. No spam…I promise!
Thanks for bringing this to people’s attention. I can totally relate to the “toddler into everything” scenario. I’ve resigned myself to a less than perfect state of household tidiness. But, it’s very important to a medication safety check. I’ll be doing an eval in the next couple of days.
So important!
Our 6 year old is really inquisitive, and in fact just got into some of the medicines in our bathroom cabinet. We need to look into a better solution.
Medicines at grandparents’ house? Definitely! Over there they don’t even have child proof caps on most of their meds and they are all down low. One reason we don’t leave the kids alone in any rooms there.