Ask the Nurse: Keeping Track of Medicine Tips

Keeping Track of Medicine Tips

Question: Any advice on how to simplify and keep track of all the medicines I give my child?

Answer: An organized system for taking medications can make medication management easier and help ensure you are giving the medications as directed by the physician. Here are a few suggestions:

Use an organizer system

These can be purchased from your local drug store and usually come in a Sun-Sat week. They are available for multiple dose days, ie., am, pm. You can use several and organize your medications by dose and by day. For example; you can label one for daily, one for am, one for pm, certain times, and so on.

An egg carton can also be used to make a weekly system

Label seven of the slots according to the day the pill is to be taken. Put the medicine for one day in each of the slots. Write on the inside of the carton lid the time when each pill is to be taken.

Create a medicine chart

This can be set up in a table format with the following headings: Name of medicine, purpose (what is it for), description (color, shape, and other identifying features), directions for taking (when and how it should be taken) and dose. If you also include the start date and physician, it also functions as a current medication list you can carry with you.

Create a color coded system

When used in combination with a medicine chart, it can be particularly useful. Use color coded self-adhesive labels, or colored markers, to code labels of the medicine containers. Put a color mark by the name of the medicine on the chart that matches the color mark on the label of the medicine container. If your child takes multiple medications, you may want to use letters or numbers. When using colors, make sure that the colors are distinctive from each other. Also, be sure you mark the medication container and not the caps or tops as these can get mixed up with the wrong containers.

Creating and having a system that is meaningful and useful to you and your child is what is most important.

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This post originally appeared on our January/February 2012 Magazine