Child-resistant packaging or special packaging are packages designed to reduce the risk of children poisoning by ingesting these harmful chemicals. According to the US Consumer Product Safety, certain over the counter medications, household chemicals and pesticides are just some of these hazardous products.

Pharmaceutical companies need to take extra precautions to protect children from unintentionally taking these medications. Some regulatory bodies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission or CPSC have a testing and certification process to ensure packages are child-resistant. It’s imperative for pharmaceutical companies to obtain these certifications.

Here are five effective tips to ensure child-resistant packaging:

1. Get Rid of Visual Cues

Kids are naturally curious human beings. When they see something that attracts them, they find ways to acquire these. They think these packages contain some treats that they can eat or play with. So they are very persistent to open these.

Avoid having colors, shapes or images in the packaging. As kids are attracted to colorful visuals, they will surely be tempted to find ways to open them. Keep them off it by making it unappealing and unattractive to them.

A good tip would be to use texts in the instruction labels instead of images or colors. Just do make sure that the packaging looks appealing to the adults to also boost more sales. I personally prefer to buy cheap labels that compatible with Zebra, Dymo and Avery printers and organize my packages with child-friendly visual cues.

2. Make it Difficult to Open

Another rule of thumb is to make it complicated and difficult to open to a child. They will be persistent though but at least they can’t open it.

One surefire way to keep kids off the packages is to make sure only adults have the ability to open them. Design it in a way where more strength is needed to pry open any packaging. However, do not make it too complicated for an adult.

One tip is to make the lid too tight for a kid to open. After countless tries, the kids will give up.

3. Opt for a Bigger Packaging Size

It will be harder for a child to open a package when the lid is too big for them to open. When this is combined with the other tips like applying a little force when opening a package and not using visual images, rest assured your kids will leave the packages alone.

A tip for parents would be to always buy medications with bigger packaging sizes. Avoid buying pills in units to reduce the risks of your child ingesting it. When you do decide to buy them in units, make sure it is stored in a container with a very tight lid.

4. Put it to the Test

The best way for pharmaceutical companies to ensure the packages can’t be opened by any kid is to actually let kids attempt to open them. Gather at least 50 or even a hundred kids, and divide them into groups.

For the first group, let them open the container using their teeth while the rest of the group may attempt to open the container with their hands.

See how they will do. If they all can’t open the packaging, it’s good to go.

5. Try Unit-dose Packaging

Instead of having to fully open a bottle to get the pills, why not use a container where it dispenses only one pill at a time? Do make sure it’s complicated for a kid to dispense a pill from the bottle.

Although most pharmaceutical companies have lids that can be removed, there are companies where only a thumb press is needed to take the pill out of the bottle. Consider this to make packaging child-resistant.

Safer Packaging for the Entire Family

When distributing packages that contain substances that may be harmful to a child, a pharmaceutical company must prioritize safety over other things. They must adhere to the company rules and regulations to obtain the proper certifications for these.

Furthermore, they must do proper and secure testing for it. No product must go out to the market without undergoing thorough testing and inspection.

A lot of factors must be considered though, not just being the package child-resistant. Of course, as a business, they must packaged it in a way where it can also boost sales and brand awareness to their target audience.