Report: More Children Are Accidentally Swallowing Pills at Home
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — There’s been a spike in the number of children taken to emergency rooms for swallowing dangerous drugs, and, in a surprising number of those cases, those pills belonged to grandparents, a new study finds.
Children under five years old are rushed to the emergency room 64,000 times a year from medications they got at home. And, in 38% of these hospital visits, the medications belong to grandparents.
According to Kate Carr, [resident of Safe Kids Worldwide, this percentage may be so high because today more grandparents are living with their families.
“There’s been a 23% increase since 2005, and we know that older adults take more medicine,” Carr added.
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