Skip to main content

Advertising Disclaimer »

Main menu

  • Journals
    • Pediatrics
    • Hospital Pediatrics
    • Pediatrics in Review
    • NeoReviews
    • AAP Grand Rounds
    • AAP News
  • Authors/Reviewers
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Author Guidelines
    • Reviewer Guidelines
    • Open Access
    • Editorial Policies
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Archive
    • Blogs
    • Topic/Program Collections
    • AAP Meeting Abstracts
  • Pediatric Collections
    • COVID-19
    • Racism and Its Effects on Pediatric Health
    • More Collections...
  • AAP Policy
  • Supplements
  • Multimedia
    • Video Abstracts
    • Pediatrics On Call Podcast
  • Subscribe
  • Alerts
  • Careers
  • Other Publications
    • American Academy of Pediatrics

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
American Academy of Pediatrics

AAP Gateway

Advanced Search

AAP Logo

  • Log in
  • Journals
    • Pediatrics
    • Hospital Pediatrics
    • Pediatrics in Review
    • NeoReviews
    • AAP Grand Rounds
    • AAP News
  • Authors/Reviewers
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Author Guidelines
    • Reviewer Guidelines
    • Open Access
    • Editorial Policies
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Archive
    • Blogs
    • Topic/Program Collections
    • AAP Meeting Abstracts
  • Pediatric Collections
    • COVID-19
    • Racism and Its Effects on Pediatric Health
    • More Collections...
  • AAP Policy
  • Supplements
  • Multimedia
    • Video Abstracts
    • Pediatrics On Call Podcast
  • Subscribe
  • Alerts
  • Careers

Discover Pediatric Collections on COVID-19 and Racism and Its Effects on Pediatric Health

American Academy of Pediatrics
Commentary

Preventing Medication Overdoses in Young Children: An Opportunity for Harm Elimination

Daniel S. Budnitz and Spencer Salis
Pediatrics June 2011, 127 (6) e1597-e1599; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-0926
Daniel S. Budnitz
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Spencer Salis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • Comments
Loading

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Download PDF

Medication overdoses in young children are an increasingly common public health problem, but it is a preventable problem that can be addressed by combining strategies. The introduction of child-resistant packaging (CRP), product reformulations, heightened parental awareness, and poison control professionals and systems have made deaths from pediatric poisonings uncommon. However, the morbidity rate from medication overdoses, measured by emergency department (ED) visits and from calls to poison control centers, has been rising.1,2

Medications have surpassed household products (eg, cleaning agents) as the predominant cause of pediatric poisonings.3 More than 70 000 children are brought to EDs for unintentional medication overdoses annually; the peak incidence is in 2-year-olds (Fig 1). Between 2005 and 2009, ED visits for medication overdoses among children younger than 5 years rose 20%. In 2009, 1 of every 151 2-year-olds was assessed in an ED for a medication overdose. Among children younger than 5 years, 95% of these ED visits for medication overdoses were a result of unsupervised (accidental) ingestions. Fewer than 5% of ED visits were a result of errors made by a caregiver; such visits primarily involve incorrect dosing. Recognizing the significance of this problem, a new Healthy People 2020 objective calls for reversal of these morbidity trends and a reduction in ED visits by 10% by 2020.4

FIGURE 1

Rate of ED visits for unintentional medication overdoses in young children: United States, 2006–2009. Population rate estimates were based on the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–Cooperative …

Address correspondence to DanielS. Budnitz, MD, MPH, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, NE, Mail Stop A-24, Atlanta, GA 30333. E-mail: dbudnitz{at}cdc.gov

Individual Login

Log in
You will be redirected to aap.org to login or to create your account.

Institutional Login

via Institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your librarian or administrator if you do not have a username and password.

Log in through your institution

If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

Pay Per Article - You may access this article (from the computer you are currently using) for 2 days for US$25.00

Regain Access - You can regain access to a recent Pay per Article purchase if your access period has not yet expired.

Offer Reprints

PreviousNext
Back to top

Advertising Disclaimer »

In this issue

Pediatrics
Vol. 127, Issue 6
1 Jun 2011
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
View this article with LENS
PreviousNext
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on American Academy of Pediatrics.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Preventing Medication Overdoses in Young Children: An Opportunity for Harm Elimination
(Your Name) has sent you a message from American Academy of Pediatrics
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the American Academy of Pediatrics web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Request Permissions
Article Alerts
Log in
You will be redirected to aap.org to login or to create your account.
Or Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Preventing Medication Overdoses in Young Children: An Opportunity for Harm Elimination
Daniel S. Budnitz, Spencer Salis
Pediatrics Jun 2011, 127 (6) e1597-e1599; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2011-0926

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Preventing Medication Overdoses in Young Children: An Opportunity for Harm Elimination
Daniel S. Budnitz, Spencer Salis
Pediatrics Jun 2011, 127 (6) e1597-e1599; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2011-0926
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Print
Download PDF
Insight Alerts
  • Table of Contents

Jump to section

  • Article
    • PUBLIC-PRIVATE COLLABORATION
    • ADDRESSING UNSUPERVISED INGESTIONS THROUGH PACKAGING INNOVATIONS AND EDUCATION
    • STANDARDS FOR PRODUCT LABELS AND DOSING DEVICES TO FOSTER SAFE USE
    • FUTURE EFFORTS
    • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    • Footnotes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • Comments

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • Pediatric ADHD Medication Exposures Reported to US Poison Control Centers
  • E-Cigarette and Liquid Nicotine Exposures Among Young Children
  • Antidote for medication overdoses: Use metric dosing, educate parents
  • Poisoning in young children
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Realizing the Potential of Nurse Home Visiting
  • The Public Health and Clinical Importance of Accurate Neonatal Testing for COVID-19
  • Addressing Health Inequities for Limited English Proficiency Patients: Interpreter Use and Beyond
Show more Commentaries

Similar Articles

Subjects

  • Injury, Violence & Poison Prevention
    • Injury, Violence & Poison Prevention
  • Journal Info
  • Editorial Board
  • Editorial Policies
  • Overview
  • Licensing Information
  • Authors/Reviewers
  • Author Guidelines
  • Submit My Manuscript
  • Open Access
  • Reviewer Guidelines
  • Librarians
  • Institutional Subscriptions
  • Usage Stats
  • Support
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Resources
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • International Access
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Statement
  • FAQ
  • AAP.org
  • shopAAP
  • Follow American Academy of Pediatrics on Instagram
  • Visit American Academy of Pediatrics on Facebook
  • Follow American Academy of Pediatrics on Twitter
  • Follow American Academy of Pediatrics on Youtube
  • RSS
American Academy of Pediatrics

© 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics