More Children Poisoned By Parents' Prescription Drugs

Popular prescription drugs like statins are causing more childhood poisonings.

Popular prescription drugs like statins are causing more childhood poisonings.

Dad takes a cholesterol-lowering statin so he'll be around to see the kids grow up. But statins, like Lipitor and Zocor, as well as some other common adult prescription drugs are causing a rise in poisonings among children, a study says.

The big surprise is that children are at risk not just from opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin, which most parents know need to be kept away from kids.

Seemingly innocuous medications for high cholesterol, diabetes and angina are sending children and teenagers to the emergency room. The risk was highest for children 5 and younger, who might pick up a pill from the floor and try it.

Diabetes drugs and beta blockers caused the highest rate of emergency room visits, higher even than for opioids.

Diabetes pills, such as metformin or one of the sulfonylurea drugs, can cause seizures and death in someone who isn't diabetic.

And beta blockers, such as atenolol, lower heart rate and blood pressure. An adult dose of these can be especially dangerous for small children.

Nearly half of the children who went to the emergency room after taking diabetes drugs were hospitalized, as were almost one-third of those taking beta blockers.

These are the sort of drugs that parents, grandparents and visiting friends have with them daily, and that most adults wouldn't think of as dangerous.

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More Children Poisoned By Parents' Prescription Drugs