Health Tips: Medication safety

• Keep a list of all the medications that you take (prescribed drugs, nonprescription medicines, herbal supplements, home remedies, and medical foods) and the medicines that you cannot take due to allergic reactions. Give that list to your doctor or pharmacist.
  
• Tell your health care provider how you actually take your medication, especially if it is different from the directions.
  
• Learn the names of the drugs you take along with their dosage and the times you take them.
  
• Ask if you should avoid certain foods, beverages, other medicines, or activities while you are taking a specific drug.
  
• Ask for written information available on the drug.
  
• Question anything you don’t understand or that doesn’t seem right. Be alert to changes, such as receiving a prescription refill that looks different than what you’re used to.
  
• Don’t take medications in front of children, as they often try to imitate adults.
  
• Use child-resistant closures on medicines and other products.
  
• Keep all medications in their original child-resistant containers.
  
• Always turn on the light when giving or taking medicine.
  
• Check your medications for expiration dates. If the medication is not dated, consider it expired six months after purchase.
• Avoid putting medications in open trash containers in the kitchen or bathroom, because many adult medications can be deadly to small children and pets.