Safe Medication Disposal

Behavioral Interventions:



  • Parent Training:
  • Parent training programs, such as behavioral parent training (BPT) and parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), teach parents effective behavior management techniques and improve parent-child relationships, reducing disruptive behaviors in children with ADHD.
  • Parent training is the first-line recommended intervention for preschool aged children with ADHD and as an accompanying treatment with medication for school aged children with ADHD.
  • Recommendations for parent training are NOT done because you are a bad parent, they are done because parenting a child with ADHD requires different skills and strategies compared to parenting a neurotypical child. Learning these techniques can be most helpful for the entire family. 
  • School-Based Interventions:
  • Collaborative efforts between educators, parents, and healthcare professionals can help create supportive learning environments tailored to the needs of students with ADHD.
  • Classroom accommodations, behavioral interventions, and academic supports promote academic success and social integration.
  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
  • CBT is not a treatment for ADHD itself, but it targets cognitive and behavioral patterns that contribute to inattention, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation.
  • Organizational Skills Training:
  • Executive function deficits are common in ADHD. Organizational skills training teaches individuals strategies for planning, time management, and task organization to enhance productivity and reduce functional impairments.
  • Manage screen time:
  • Online gaming and social sites are very attractive for the ADHD brain because these activities raise dopamine. Increaseed screen time has been associated with worsening of attention span and desired behaviors. Limiting screen time can be very difficult for parents. Dr. Sharon Saline has written about this and has a fabulous talk linked on the page that's worth your time.
  • Healthy Screen Habits for Families
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has a very helpful Family Media Plan tool. You can see suggestions based on age for all members of the family and adjust to your family's needs. See the AAP Media Plan Maker.
  • Mindfulness and meditation have been shown to be effective in helping to calm the mind and improve focus. Long-term consistent use changes the density of the grey matter of the brain - areas of attention, emotional regulation, working memory and self-awareness benefit. Science backs it up, so if you think it won't work, there's data to say otherwise. 
  • It takes time to develop a habit and mindfulness needs to be done daily - just a few minutes a day is all it takes to make changes, but you do need to do it daily.
  • There are many mindfulness and meditation apps out there.
  • Common Sense Media has a meditation app review page that includes age suggestions for each. Some are for littles only, but others are appropriate for young children through adults. 
  • There are free apps, such as Smiling Mind and Insight Timer, that can help you practice mindfulness together. They each have child-specific meditations as well as ones for adults.
  • Balance is a newer app with a one year free trial - long enough to really develop your practice. It uses answers to daily questions to adapt your practice to your needs and explains the science behind why you do various exercises to help improve your learning. 


Return to the top of this page

If your medicine cabinet has old medicines that you will no longer use, it is important to get rid of them safely so your children are less at risk of accidental ingestion. A few small steps can make an important difference in safeguarding lives and protecting the environment.

Follow your medication prescriber’s instructions and use all medications as instructed. If you do not use all of your prescribed or over-the-counter medication, you can take a few small steps to make a huge impact in safeguarding lives and protecting the environment by disposing of unused medicines properly:
 

  1. DO NOT FLUSH unused medications and DO NOT POUR them down a sink or drain. *
  2. Check for Approved State and Local Collection Programs. 
  3. Be Proactive and Dispose of Unused Medication In Household Trash. When discarding unused medications, ensure you protect children and pets from potentially negative effects:
  • Pour medication into a sealable plastic bag. If medication is a solid (pill, liquid capsule, etc.), add water to dissolve it.
  • Add kitty litter, sawdust, coffee grounds (or any material that mixes with the medication and makes it less appealing for pets and children to eat) to the plastic bag.
  • Seal the plastic bag and put it in the trash.
  • Remove and destroy ALL identifying personal information (prescription label) from all medication containers before recycling them or throwing them away.
  1. Consult your pharmacist with any questions.


*Note: The FDA recommends Disposal by Flushing of a small number of medications. Click here to view a current list of medications.