It is very distressing to see a child in the emergency room who has found medicines stored in the home and taken an inadvertent overdose. It doesn't take much to cause considerable harm to a small child.

Part of the problem is that there really are no safe pharmaceutical drugs in this context. Any that must be kept should certainly be kept stored out of the reach of children. Unfortunately it doesn't always turn out that way, even for the most caring and generally responsible parents.

I find it all the more disturbing when I sometimes note that the drugs consumed could have been replaced by vastly safer herbal medicines. Had the parents in those cases been treated with herbal remedies instead of potent synthetic chemicals, the situation would not have arisen, since the drugs would not have been in the home.

Don't misunderstand me here. I know all too well that herbal medicines must also be treated with due care, especially when it comes to children. Herbs are quite potent too. However, they generally represent nowhere near the danger associated with pharmaceuticals.

A very useful list of herbs that could comprise a home herbal medicine chest is located in the Herb Health Guide site on the Home Herbal Medicine Chest [1] page. All up there are only 30 herbs, yet they make a very useful range of effective medicines. It would be a good idea to look up each of the listed herbs in the Herb Health Guide site. You may be surprised to see what you can do, and maybe what you can do without.