Management of Medicines @ Home

Hi all,

Before I start up, I would like to share a thought and an experience- I recently got a chance to visit a school for blinds and when I stepped out the premises, I felt, we generally tend to count in the things- to the God we had deserved but did not get; however, we never count the things which we never asked, still God has blessed us with!!!

Now, lets hop on to our core subject- home organising! Today I am going to talk about a thing that is present almost in every home with an equal importance of as salt in the kitchen. Its Medicines. The cupboard/shelf/drawer where we keep our medicines needs an equivalent attention of organising as any other place in our home. Medicines are inevitable, inescapable to some extent especially in a family where aged members, toddlers or babies are present.

I experienced that I was not able to fetch time every month or now and then, to relook into my medicine cupboard. It was least in my concentration focus. But what came up was rushing in the need of emergency to the same cupboard and then, rotating and flipping the sides of bottles and medicine strips to check for their expiry. 

So, the question in the mind was how to arrange it? The foremost step I took was, bought a 3-tier organiser. They are easily available in the market at very economical price.

And, the arrangement I followed in it was-

1-tier - has all the medicines strips.

2-tier- has thermometer, respules (if any), bandages etc

3-tier has some ointments . 

Thats sorted. Now come bottles. Lets look into it. First, arrange them in the height-order.  The idea behind organising this is that the day you sort this cupboard, next 3 months you should make use of this sorting! How?

Pick a permanent marker, the bottles that are going to expire in next three months, on the top (round lid flat top) of that bottle, mark a cross with the marker. Marking with cross represents the medicine is going to get expired. Now, in the upper part of the cross, or any 'v' part of the cross, write the month number in which it is going to get expired, as shown below. For example - You are sorting in March, bottle A getting expired in April, so cross should have 4 in it, in case of May, cross should have 5 in it. 

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The first picture of the bottle is showing the expiry date of the medicine i.e April 2017, and, the second picture shows that the cap of the bottle has been crossed with the month April (4th in the year).

The benefit of writing on the top flat part of the cap of bottle is that it becomes prominently visible and catches attention while picking up for the use and gives us a check on its expiry fast.

Medicine strips when we use them, we generally tear without caring to keep the expiry print on it, so, better way is to mark it with expiry date under its name on front or back side itself. 

This picture shows that the medicine strip was torn during the usage but has been inked with marker at several places reflecting expiry as on 10/18 i.e October-2018.

Names on the strips are written at multiple places for its safe use. You can cross the ones with near expiry by writing again the month number in that cross as shown below in the pic.

I would also like to mention one thing here that there are some medicine bottles that have powder in it (like kid’s probiotics) and needs to add cold boiled water and make it ready. They have short span of life in days time. So, to avoid any confusion, its always better to mark it on flat top of bottle cap its expiry date or the date you made it ready to use (any one as per your convenience). 

This saves a lot of time and energy in hush-bush scenarios. Neat look is the output too. Organising is a vicious circle, having small steps as its segments like scrutinising, shunting, placing and rearranging etc. However, I feel its like learning a bicycle, once learnt making balance, you will never forget it, and, also, it will help you in driving and riding other vehicles too!!

I try to keep minimum medicines, however, medicines for fever, a probiotic, some bandages, betadine solution for small wounds, mild cough etc are the ones which are all-time present and needs time to time fresh replacements also.

You can try this method and write me the feedback and suggestions.

Another bye from my side..soon will come back with my next article. Your responses  and questions are most welcomed.

Upasana

A Pragmatic approach to Steel over Plastic and Melamine

Hi All, 

We work hard all the day to fill in our bowls and plates with healthy meals. Good kitchenware (cookware and storage ware) is an integral part of any cooking and can have a substantial amount of impact on our health. Therefore, its important to know the pros and cons of different storage materials, so as we can make safe choices for our kitchen. Nowadays, easy availability, economical  purchase, colourful designs , prints, shapes has made us cover our kitchen with plastic and melamine. There has been a lot of buzz around these days about - to what extent plastic and melamine are safe to use in kitchen - both for cooking and storage as well.

So, as we progress in this article, I have tried to fill in the basic information in context to these storage products . While selecting the vessels and containers, my focus has always been on - to minimise the quantity of metal absorption into the food. Lets first get insight to what these materials are:

1. Plastic-  As market floors were flooded with these easy to use, colourful, bright, light weight vessels and containers, I too had got attracted to buy them, especially because they were available in more than the standard sizes. The label that caught my attention was- BPA Free, which was not mentioned on all plastic products. The few of them that were labelled, were kid’s water bottles, sippers, tiffins, snack boxes, but, most of the other vessels and containers did not had this label.

So, what is plastic?  What is BPA? Plastic is a synthetic material made from a wide range  of polymers like nylon, polyethylene, etc that can be moulded into different shapes while soft into a rigid or slightly flexible vessel or container. BPA stands for Bisphenol A- a kind of special chemical used in industries for making plastic.

When Plastic comes in contact with food (hot food especially) , there is a major risk of some of that plastic and bisphenol A,  reacting with the content(s) of the  food (especially spice/ vinegar/ citric/ tomatoes etc). Some researches show that BPA can seep deep into the food or even beverages. BPA also have impact on brain, developmental growth of fetuses, infants and children. However, the plasticware having the label of been BPA free, too has some age, in use, not appearance wise; due to the base of chemicals it is made up of from.

My daughter’s paediatrician once suggested me to slowly shift from plastic to steel tiffins, water  bottles, the vessels and the storage containers. This lead me to go through many research papers written by specialists on the usage of plastic and its impact in life.

A new study says that even if plastic don't contain BPA, most of its products release estrogenic chemicals. George Bittner, one of the study's authors and a professor of biology at the University of Texas, Austin and his testing company CertiChem, chopped up pieces of some plastic product and soaked them in either saltwater or alcohol to see what came out. The testing showed that more than 70 percent of the products released chemicals that acted like estrogen. (refer to-http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals). Estrogen is the primary female sex hormone. Among other roles, it promotes the development and maintenance of female characteristics in the human body. It plays an important role throughout a woman's life. In teens, estrogen contributes to healthy bone growth and development and influences reproductive processes. However, use of more plastic products brings up  estrogen level and leads to set in early puberty in the girl child. To some extent, its affects the fertility level also. (refer to- 

http://www.livestrong.com/article/245567-what-effects-does-estrogen-have-on-an-adolescent-girl/)

2. Melamine- Melamine is basically a chemical used in making plastics tableware. It is added so as to mould, to create tableware, when heated. Melamine plates, bowls and cups are hard plastic dishes that are extremely durable, crack-proof and come in a wide array of shapes, colours and patterns. They have a distinct smooth texture also. 

Researches say that there is a potential risk of contamination of food with this chemical from the tableware as it leaches into the food, mostly if the food is hot or acidic. Microwaving food in plastic containers or melamine (even microwave-safe plastic) is a big-health no-no.

3. Steel- Steel is an iron-carbon alloy that does not undergo eutectic (a mixture of substances that melts and freezes at a single temp that is lower than the melting point of the constituents). Stainless steel is more stable than the other metals used for cookware  and storage as well, as it does not leach significantly into the food. They do not get scratched easily. Another, its tough, does not chip and hard to break too. Steel has replaced many materials like plastic, aluminium in  a big way due to its strength, life span, durability and easy handling. Its dish washer safe too. It is not only used in households all over the world, and also by the professional chefs. It is dent and scratch resistant. It can go to the refrigerator easily. Struck food will generally come-off with a little elbow grease. Researches that resulted in showing the effect of estrogen chemical of the container to food, suggested to even store all the raw food material also in steel containers. As per an Indian family’s kitchen, raw-lentils (daals), rice , flour, sugar, tea, coffee powder, spices, from tamarind to jaggery powder, biscuits, cookies, chips- everything is advised to go to steel containers.

After spending considerable time in choosing and preparing nutritious food for our families, it can be pretty frustrating to learn that the products we are using to cook, bake, eat and store food with may actually put our families health at risk. The good news is- there are many safer alternatives as well as things you can opt. Crux is that steel is a safer metal to be used in kitchen for storage purpose, over melamine and plastic. Melamine and plastic are not recyclables. It makes a real eco-conundrum if you want to get rid of melamine and plastic kitchenwares.

I have, slowly and gradually shifted from plastic - melamine to steel. Replacing each and every in the kitchen to steel in a single leap can be difficult. So, we can always prioritise and initiate steps. I would also like to mention that there are many containers available in the market whose lid has a glass shield in it to make the container a see-through for an easy use. To mark, its a short term investment for reaping long term returns.

Points to consider

• Start with replacing the tiffin boxes, water bottles first. Especially, for the kids. It gives an immense satisfaction when we step-up for their health benefit.

• Follow-up with the replacement of spice-box (masala-box), tea, sugar and coffee container. A combo for such is available too.  

• Count your additional spices and replace them with steel containers having see through lid. 

• Count your containers for lentils/ rice/flour etc for the next replacement.

• Steel sprinklers for powdered spices like cumin powder, black pepper powder, cardamom powder etc are also available. 

• Small steel tub shape containers for cut-fruit , salad etc for putting in fridge .

This is how i did! 

Signing-off for today. Hope this article would help you to think once more when you make a next purchase of vessels and containers. I will save the discussion on cookwares for another day. 

Upasana