admin Now that winter is approaching and school has started it is the right time to get your medicine cabinet organized. If your child has just started school or childcare for the very first time, it is most likely that s/he will start getting sick more often. It is very normal, so don’t panic.
Children are exposed to germs everywhere, especially in schools and childcare, so it is impossible to germ proof your child. Exposure to different viruses and germs will actually strengthen the immune system of your child. Obviously if your child is prone to certain illness, it is necessary that you take the necessary precautions to enhance their immune system. To enhance immune systems, it is important that the child follows a healthy diet, gets plenty of exercise, rest, drinks water and if need be get nutritional supplements.
It is very important, to teach our children how to wash their hands properly to avoid the spreading of germs. Always equip children with tissues and hand sanitizers in their school bags. However, it is inevitable and your child will get sick.
Always consult your doctor / pediatrician before administering any medication to your child. However, it is important that we have some basic medication in our medicine cupboard, for minor issues. An unorganized medicine cabinet can lead us to have expired medication or duplicate medication which is a total waste of money.
Here are some tips how to start getting your medicine cupboard organized:
1. Empty your medicine cabinet
No matter how big or small your medicine cabinet is, start off by emptying the medicine cabinet. Go round the house and collect any form of medication you have laying around the house and gather everything in one place.
2. Check expiry date of medicine
As you are emptying out your cabinet, check the expiry date. Even is a medication has been unopened, if it is expired toss it away. You don’t wish to administer expired medication to your child.
3. Categorize your medicines
Keep your child’s medicines separate from adult medicines. It has happened to everyone of us, that we are awoken in the middle of the night by a sick child and half asleep you grab an adult medicine or expired medicine. So having them separate will definitely make life easier.
If you have large amounts of medicines, categorize according to the type of illness such as cold/flu, first aid, allergy etc. If one of your children, or family members has a chronic illness that needs continual medical it is even more important to categorize the medications. Which also leads me to the next point.
4. Using baskets / containers
It all depends on the size of your medicine cabinet. If you have place where to put baskets, then opt for clear glass containers. Label containers between kids and adults. Labeling your containers is crucial when you have a child or even yourself with chronic illness. Medication needs to be clearly identifiable to whoever needs to administer such medication.
If you don’t have much space, make sure to allocate a shelf for adults and one for kids.
5. Make use of the inside of your cabinet door
The inside of your cabinet is often disregard but you can attach important telephone number, ways how to administer medication, short notes or inventory of medications you have. You can also stick magnetic strips to place small bits and pieces (that are magnetic) or get small containers with a magnetic strip at the back.
6. Stock up
Once you have an idea of the medications you have and all organized, stock up on basic medications you might need until you get to see your doctor. You can consult your doctor for the essential medications you should keep in your medicine cabinet for your family.
Having an organized medicine cabinet, will definitely help us face the coming months in a responsible way. As your medication finishes, just replace with another bottle. Having more than one bottle of the same thing is wasteful.
I hope this blog post helped to be more mindful when purchasing medication and get your medicine cabinet organized.
Love
Strugglingmum xxx
