Category: News Tags: prescription drug overdose
If you head to the emergency room for an urgent medical problem, chances are, you’ll be waiting longer than you planned. You may also be surprised to find yourself sitting alongside a young child. Emergency rooms have seen a major increase in the number of patients who need care for prescription drug overdoses or other drug complications. Even more alarming is new research that shows that numbers of visits to emergency rooms due to accidental drug consumption by children under age five are sharply on the rise.
Category: News Tags: prescription drug overdose
Parents are often vigilant about what substances are available to their young children. Movies not rated “G” are placed in a separate closet, cleaning supplies are removed from low kitchen cabinets, and every imaginable safety device is attached to outlets, windows, furniture corners and toilet seats.
Some of the greatest hazards for young children, however, are some of the smallest things in our home. Medications, small and often brightly colored, are tempting to young eyes and hands, and often overlooked by caregivers when baby proofing a home. In some cases, parents meticulously safeguard babies at home, but are unable to extend the same awareness to the child’s grandparents’ homes.
The Drug Abuse Warning Network analyzes emergency department visits that involve drugs, including accidental ingestion by children. Data is collected nation-wide, but does not include children’s hospitals or other specialty hospitals.
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