From time to time you are going to need to take some medicine. It happens to us all. And one thing about medicine, very often all the bottles of pills can look the same. So knowing how to read a medicine bottle label is an important skill to have. We could end up taking the wrong pills or the wrong dosage.

The layout of the labels may vary, but the information on them will always be the same, because there is information that has to be there by law.

Important Things To Look For On A Medicine Bottle Label

• Who the prescription for whom it was prescribed. It is super important to only take medicine that is for you.

• The name of the medicine along with a dosage.

• Instructions on when to take the medicine. Twice a day, with food, or instructions something like that.

• The quantity of medication. This may be the number of pills in the bottle.

• A discard-after date. This is very important as medicines lose their potency after a while and need to be disposed of responsibly.

• Warnings. There will be cautions on the label too, like may cause drowsiness or breathing problems. It is important to know the risks associated with a medicine you are taking so you can watch for side effects. That bottle has a whole lot more information than I bet you expected. From now on, you’ll know exactly what is in a bottle and how to stay safe when taking it.

With your parents’ guidance, find four medicines and look for the name, dose, how often to take the medicine, any warnings, and the do-not-use-after date. Give a presentation to your parents of what you find. Make sure the medicines don’t get lost or get into the hands of young children while you are looking at the labels.

This is a RockHopper skill and has been featured as Skill Of The Week.

 

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