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Chances are good that your college student won't have his or her own private bathroom with a medicine cabinet while away at college. Nevertheless, they'll need to have any medications they take and some first-aid essentials readily at hand. Here's what to do:
Find a clean, sturdy, lightweight plastic container that opens easily to serve as a "home-away-from-home" medicine cabinet. (Bathroom medicine cabinets aren't the best places to store medicines anyway since the damp humid air in them may cause ingredients in pills or capsules to change.) Keep medications in this container, along with first-aid supplies (see list below). Also include emergency phone numbers for a local health care provider or the student health center, as well as the regional Poison Control Center. Stash this "home-away-from-home" medicine cabinet in a dry, dark place. Lock it or store it in a locked cabinet if little kids are around.
The American College of Emergency Physicians suggests these items for a first-aid kit:
Other items you might want to include in their home-away-from-home medicine cabinet are:
Remind your teen to read medication labels, expiration dates, usage instructions and warnings each time he or she is taking any medications. And to throw away any medicines that are beyond their expiration dates. They may have lost potency. Encourage them to use the dosing cap or other device that came with the medication because the spoon they use to stir coffee or eat soup might not measure a precise dose of liquid medicines.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If your teen has a sudden illness or a medical- or health-related condition, do not have them use any medication without first consulting a health care professional.