This article was previously published on February 26, 2020 and has been updated with new information.
Besides causing many side effects in people taking the drugs, the widespread regular use of pharmaceuticals also poses a serious risk to children from touching them.
As of 2016, nearly half of the US population was on at least one medication.first,2 Twenty-four percent used three or more drugs and 12.6% used more than five different drugs.3 According to the 2016 National Emergency Medical Care Survey, 73.9% of all physician visits also involved drug treatment.4
As one would expect, drug use increases dramatically with age. As of 2016, 18% of children under 12 were using prescription drugs, compared with 85% of adults over 60. While this trend is troubling, with prescription drugs now a staple in most homes, the number of children suffering from accidental poisoning is also on the rise.
Medicines pose serious risks to young children
In September 2021, US News and World Report reported that childhood poisoning cases had increased significantly during the pandemic.5 For example, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia saw numbers double in just the second half of 2020. Health officials believe the reason is that with many people working from home, they become distracted or absent. more attentive to the drug than usual.
Unfortunately, poisoning cases among children have been on the rise for several years. According to a 2012 article6,7 in the Journal of Pediatrics reviewed patient records from the National Toxicology Database of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, 453,559 children 5 years of age and younger admitted to a healthcare facility after being exposed to a potentially toxic pharmaceutical drug between 2001 and 2008.
During that time, drug poisoning cases increased by 22%. Ninety-five percent of cases are due to self-exposure, which means that children have used the drug and self-medicated it, not the wrong dose.
Forty-three percent of all children admitted to hospital after accidental ingestion of medication were admitted to the intensive care unit, and prescription (as opposed to over-the-counter) medications were responsible for 71% of serious injuries. important, with opioids, sedative-hypnotics. and cardiovascular drugs topped the list of drugs causing serious harm. As noted by the authors:8
“Prevention efforts have proven inadequate in the face of a growing number of prescription drugs, especially the more dangerous ones.”
Keep All Medicines In Child Resistant Containers
If you’re older, you may remember your parents or grandparents would have a locked medicine cabinet where the medicine was kept. Few people these days keep medicines in locked cabinets or boxes without realizing the serious risk they pose to young children.
The risk is further increased if you sort your medications into easy-to-open daily pill containers instead of keeping each medication in its original child-resistant container.
Report 20209,ten in the Journal of Pediatrics, seeking to “identify the types of containers from which young children access solid-dose drugs during unsupervised drug exposure” found that 51.5% of the drugs involved were accessible because it has been removed from the original child-resistant packaging.
Notably, in 49.3% of cases involving ADHD medication and 42.6% of cases involving opioids, the drug was completely absent from any of its containers. approach. In other words, the child finds the pill or the pills have just been laid out in the open. In 30.7% of the total cases of children taking drugs, the exposure to drugs by grandparents. As noted by the authors:
“Attempts to reduce SDM in children [solid dose medication] exposure should also address exposure in which adults, not children, remove drugs from pediatric resistant packaging.
Packaging/storage innovations designed to encourage adults to keep products in resistant packaging for children, and specific educational messages that can be targeted based on schools common exposure, drug class and recipient. “
Teen drug overdoses are also on the rise
Although infants are well known for putting anything and everything in their mouths, making them especially vulnerable to accidental drug exposure, drug overdoses, especially in relation to opioids and benzodiazepines, are also becoming more common among adolescents with access to these drugs.
According to a 2019 study11 Published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, 296,838 children under 18 years of age were exposed to benzodiazepines between January 2000 and December 2015. During that time, benzodiazepine exposure in this age group increased by 54%. According to the authors:twelfth
“The severity of medical outcomes has also increased, as has the prevalence of concomitant use of multiple drugs, particularly in children 12 to <18 years of age. Nearly half of all exposures are reported. reported in 2015 recorded as intentional abuse, abuse or suicide attempt. , reflecting a change from previous years…
Healthcare providers and carers should be aware of this growing epidemic to avoid preventable harm to adolescents, young children and infants. “
A similar trend was found with opioids. A 2017 study13 when reviewing prescription opioid exposure among children and adolescents in the United States from 2000 to 2015, found:
“Poison control centers received reports of 188,468 prescription opioid exposures in children under 20 years of age between 2000 and 2015… Hydrocodone accounted for the largest proportion of exposures (28.7%). ) and 47.1% of children exposed to buprenorphine were admitted to a primary care facility (HCF).
The odds of being admitted to an HCF are higher among adolescents than children aged 0 to 5 years or children 6 to 12 years of age. Adolescents also had higher rates of serious medical outcomes… The rate of suspected teen suicide related to prescription opioids increased by 52.7% during the study period. “
Commonsense Precautions
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promotes and supports the Up and Away and Out of Sight campaign, which revolves around “several simple, data-driven actions parents and caregivers can take. working to prevent drug overdose in the children they care about and care for.”14 These general precautions include the following:15
- Store your medicines (and supplements) in their original packaging where your child cannot reach them. Do not store medicines in a nightstand, purse or end table where little hands are likely to explore and find them. Any medication stored in the refrigerator must be packaged in child-safe packaging. Also make sure medication is safely stored in areas your child frequents, such as a grandparent’s house or daycare.
- Throw away all medications after each use.
- Be sure to re-lock the safety cap after each use.
- Teach your child about drug safety; never tell them medicine is “like candy” for them to take.
- Remind guests to keep medication bags, purses, and coats in a safe place while visiting.
What to do in case of accidental drug exposure?
Remember to keep the Poison Help number in your phone and make sure your babysitter or babysitter has it. In the United States, the Poison Help number is 800-222-1222. If you suspect your child has taken prescription or OTC medication, even if he or she is not showing symptoms, call Poison Help right away.
If you are not sure what medication your child has taken, call 911 or the emergency number in your area for transportation to the nearest medical facility. While your child may appear fine for the first few minutes, this can quickly change. You want to start treatment as soon as possible to reduce the risk of permanent damage or possible death.
Be sure to bring the names of any medications your child may have accidentally taken, as well as any medications your child has taken in the last 24 hours as prescribed by the doctor, any allergies. child and any changes or symptoms you may experience Observed.
Unfortunately, the symptoms of a drug overdose can vary widely, depending on the drug, the dose, and the age of the child. That said, symptoms of an overdose may include:16
|
Nausea |
Vomiting or diarrhea |
|
Drooling or dry mouth |
Convulsion |
|
Students are bigger or smaller |
Sweat |
|
Loss of coordination and/or stuttering |
Bar |
|
Yellow skin or eyes |
Flu-like symptoms |
|
Unusual bleeding or bruising |
Stomachache |
|
Numb |
Arrhythmic heartbeat |
If your child has any of the following symptoms, call 911 (in the United States) right away:17
|
Won’t wake up |
Breathless |
|
Uncontrollable twitching or shaking |
Showing extremely weird behavior |
|
Difficulty swallowing |
The rash quickly spreads |
|
Swelling in the face, including around the lips and tongue |
The opioid epidemic affects the child population
It’s important to realize that many medications can be life-threatening for young children, even in low doses. This is especially true for opioids and buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid dependence. As noted in a 2005 article18 Opioid exposure in toddlers:
“The ingestion of opioid analgesics in children can lead to significant toxicity due to respiratory and central nervous system depression. A review of the medical literature was performed to determine whether doses were low. Are opioids dangerous in children under 6 years of age?
Methadone is considered the most toxic of the opiates; Doses as low as a single tablet can lead to death. All children who have taken any amount of methadone should be monitored in the Emergency Department (ED) for at least 6 hours and considered for hospitalization.
Most other opioids are better tolerated in small oral forms like one or two tablets. Based on the limited data available for these opioids, we conclude that a weight loss dose of 5 mg/kg codeine or higher requires 4 to 6 h of observation in the ED.
Limited data are available on propoxyphene and all extended-release preparations; Their extended half-lives would indicate the need for longer observation periods. All cases of opioid ingestion resulting in significant respiratory depression or central nervous system depression required intensive care hospitalization. “
Similarly, a 2006 paper19 on the adverse effects of unintentional exposure to buprenorphine in children, note that:
“Buprenorphine in a sublingual formulation was recently introduced to the US market for the treatment of opioid addiction. We report a series of 5 toddlers who developed respiratory failure and mental status following accidental exposure with buprenorphine.
Despite buprenorphine’s partial agonist activity and ceiling effect on respiratory depression, all children were hospitalized and treated with opioid antagonists or mechanical ventilation…
The increasing use of buprenorphine as a home treatment for opioid addiction in the United States raises public health concerns for the pediatric population. “
The message here is that as drug treatment increases and becomes more common in all age groups, so does the risk of unintentional exposure. Toddlers will just put anything in their mouths, and young children often don’t realize the difference between pills and candy.
As parents and carers, we just need to take the necessary precautions to keep all medications in a safe place, out of the reach of prying eyes. Failing to protect your medication can have profoundly tragic consequences, so please don’t take it lightly.
