Comparison of large and small child-resistant containers

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Safety
• Consumer Product Safety
• Toxicology

Background:

• Child-resistant packaging is crucial for preventing accidental ingestion of medications and vitamins.
• Understanding how young children interact with different container types is essential for improving safety measures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the ease with which children under 5 years of age could open children's aspirin (small container) and chewable multi-vitamin (large container) bottles.
• To identify the influence of container characteristics and child age on bottle accessibility.

Main Methods:

• A 13-month prospective survey documented how children opened medication containers.
• A clinical trial involved children aged 23-38 months attempting to open two types of medication bottles (aspirin and multivitamin).

Main Results:

• In the survey, over 50% of reported exposures showed children using teeth to open aspirin containers, compared to 5% for multivitamin containers.
• The clinical trial found a significant interaction between child age and container size (F = 2.83, df = 6,28; P < 0.05).
• Larger containers were more difficult for younger children (23-28 months), while smaller containers were more challenging for older children (32-38 months).

Conclusions:

• Both container design and a child's specific age are critical factors influencing bottle accessibility.
• These findings have implications for developing more effective child-resistant packaging and informing poison prevention strategies.