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"Building Blocks" is brought to you by Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.
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Every household likely has some sort of medication from pain relievers to prescription drugs,
all of which can pose a threat to children. So a nationwide push is now underway to teach
parents how to avoid mistakes. And a doctor at Penn State Hershey Medical Center is playing
a key role in writing the guidelines. Every year, 70,000 children end up in emergency
rooms for something that can easily be avoided, accidental medicine overdose.
The side effects from an overdose can be minor or they can be severe or even fatal.
Dr. Ian Paul, with Penn State Hershey Medical Center, is doing something about it. He helped
create the Up and Away program to encourage parents to store medication up high and out
of reach of children. It's part of the Protect initiative put out by the Centers for Disease
Control, calling for stronger childproofing on medication packaging, and a better explanation
for parents on how to measure a child's dosage.
Spoons come in all different shapes and sizes, and household spoons have been -- even if
it's a teaspoon, isn't as precise at delivering the five milliliters that equals a teaspoon
as using an oral syringe that has markings for each one, two, three, four, five milliliters.
Simple steps that can keep tens of thousands of children out of hospitals each year. And
for a list of simple ways to better protect your children from medication overdoses, you
can go to our website, Fox43.com. Look for this story under the "Building Blocks" tab.
There you will find a link to the Up and Away program plus other stories about children's
health.