Coughs, sniffles, cold season – children in particular are easy victims for viruses and bacteria during the cold season. Their immune systems have yet to learn how to fend off such attacks. If it has caught the little ones, special care is required.
Making the medicine cabinet fit for children
The first thing to do is to declutter: medications and aids that have passed their expiration date should be turned in to pharmacies or regulatory agencies (do not throw them in the household trash!). It is best to review your medicine cabinet once a year and replace expired medications with new ones. Get in the habit of replacing used materials as soon as possible and noting the use-by date on the packaging. Store your pharmacy out of reach of children – high up and locked – and preferably in rooms with rather low humidity and reasonably constant temperatures (e.g., in a dark, cool bedroom).
General checklist of a medicine cabinet suitable for children.
The following is an overview of what your medicine cabinet for children might contain. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. How you stock your personal pharmacy will also depend on your child’s age, preferences and habits (juice, tablets or suppositories, homeopathic globules, medicinal herb preparations, compresses), as well as the illnesses your child frequently suffers from (e.g. chest compresses if he or she often has bronchitis, throat compresses for tonsillitis, ear compresses for earaches). In addition, of course, there may be individual medicines prescribed by the doctor.
What should be purely in the medicine cabinet?
- Fennel–caraway anise tea against flatulence and diarrhea.
- Peppermint or chamomile tea for abdominal pain and nausea
- Lime blossom or sage tea against colds
- Peppermint oil to rub against headaches
- Digital clinical thermometer
- Wound disinfectant
- Wound and healing ointment
- Wound and burn gel
- Decongestant nasal drops or saline solution suitable for children.
- Cough syrup on a vegetable basis
- Child-friendly fever and pain suppositories
- Cold-warm compress (It is advisable to have a compress ready for use in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator).
- Hot water bottle
- Wrap set
- Plasters, gauze bandages, elastic bandages, burn dressings, possibly spray plasters.
- Bandage scissors, (splinter) tweezers, tick forceps, rubber gloves, wooden spatula.
- Emergency addresses and phone numbers
Is this medicine even suitable for my child?
Not every medicine that is good for adults is also suitable for children. When in doubt, parents should always ask a doctor before resorting to tablets and drops. However, some gentle remedies can also be found in “grandma’s treasure chest“. As a rule, children must not be treated with medicines for adults, so they must not simply be given a lower dosage.
Especially for babies and children under the age of three, many medications are taboo. Even those that are usually well tolerated by adults. For example, the acetylsalicylic acid contained in many painkillers and antipyretics can cause severe liver damage in young children. Reason enough to make the children’s medicine cabinet fit for winter, especially in the fall.
