How To Make Your Medicine Cabinet Safer

Your medicine chest looks like a place where candies are stored to most kids. The fact that most medicines for kids taste pretty good also doesn't help. This is why it is important to clean it out as often as possible and put harmful medications under lock and key if you can. 

You should get rid of left-over or half use prescriptions as well as over-the-counter or prescription medicines that are past their expiry date.  If your kid doesn't finish his or her medication you should probably be throwing it out anyway.  It is dangerous to have old prescriptions around unless your pediatrician specifically told you to keep them. 

To make it a little safer you should also get rid of all the medications that do not have child resistant caps or packaging.  Even better yet don't keep any kind of medicine chest or medicine storage in your child's room at all! 

There are also some medications that you may have on hand that are not recommended for use by doctors or the American Pediatric association.  A good example is syrup of ipecac as the Academy of Pediatrics no longer says this is a good item to keep in the home. It used to be used to induce vomiting in kids that were accidentally poisoned. 

You should also get rid of any old mercury thermometers and trade them in for the newest sensor digital thermometers. The old fashioned ones can break and expose your kid to mercury and mercury vapors.  S

urprisingly the Academy of Pediatrics also recommends getting rid of hydrogen peroxide. We typically use it to disinfect cuts or wounds but apparently instead of helping to heal hydrogen peroxide may actual damage healthy skin cells. Try not to keep any aspirin in your medicine cabinet. Both very young children and adults are at risk of developing Reye's syndrome if they even take just one pill.  This is not a matter of overdose!   It is also common knowledge that you shouldn’t give your child, or even your teenager, aspirin unless there is no other option and you are stranded at a cottage. Start with half a pill if you have to and watch for any reactions (such as a rash.) 

When you are done cleaning out your medicine cabinet you should not just throw everything in the trash.  Don't flush them into the toilet either. These medicines are getting into our groundwater (especially the antibiotics.) As we are consuming antibiotics unnecessarily through water sources we are becoming more and more resistant to them. This can result in flesh eating diseases such as MRSA and illness from ordinary bacteria like staph. 

One way to keep your kid out of the medicine chest is to never give him or her the idea that is okay to go in there in the first place. Never say to your teen 'go get it yourself.' You don't want to end up with a Little Lindsay Lohan on your hands who has no idea about how to handle drugs.

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Post Partum Depression

Postpartum depression is sneaky. It occurs within minutes, days, weeks or months after childbirth. It is considered a major depressive episode and it is not something that is natural or that can be ignored. It is also not treated with vitamins as everybody's favorite post partum expert Tom Cruise has suggested. It is just not 'the baby blues.' 

Symptoms of post partum depression include anxiety, agoraphobia, paranoia persistent feeling down, lethargy, indecisiveness, lack of care about the appearance, negative thinking, feeling overwhelmed, an inability to concentrate, disassociation, suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, insomnia or oversleeping, fatigue, and irritable mood.

Sometimes this form of depression is also accompanied by hateful thoughts about the child or including the desire to harm or kill the child. You might feel like you can't handle being in the same room as the child one more minute longer. 

When is postpartum considered to be serious?  A mild case of the baby blues officially becomes post partum if feelings of sadness after birth last more than two weeks. If you know someone like this encourage him or her to get help. It is also very important to stress to your friend that none of this is her fault. Postpartum depression is quite common. It occurs in about 15 percent of mothers. 

Mothers most likely to get post-partum are those who already have a history of depression and those who have had it before. There seems to be no real explanation as to why some new mothers experience postpartum depression and others do not.  Doctors blame it on lowered estrogen levels and shifts in progesterone, cortisol, and beta-endorphin levels. In other words, post partum is the consequence of your body manufacturing hormones and chemicals in a way that makes you feel sad, hostile or depressed. 

Unfortunately many women do not recognize the chemical and hormonal activity going on in their body as being responsible for the way they feel. They prefer to blame themselves because they feel so inadequate and guilty about the hostility that they feel towards their child. Usually the inner critic is turned on full blast and you can't do anything right. If you feel suicidal after having a baby or if you know a mother that has any of the above symptoms it is very important that you get her to be assessed by a medical professional as soon as possible.

Post-partum is a serious condition that can create an altered state of reality. Sadly sometimes post partum depression can cost both the mother and the baby their lives. However this does not mean you want to treat the mother like a murderer! Don't give post partum any more stigma then it already has a condition.  Too many mothers who have had it have been described as unfit. 

Keep in mind too that talking to an individual with post-partum depression can be quite difficult. This is because part of the syndrome is irritability and paranoia. She will want to sleep and avoid responsibility but your chore as a friend is to get her out of bed and to see the doctor!

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