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Almost all prescription medicines in the United States come in bottles with child-resistant caps. Still, more than 9,000 children younger than 6 are hospitalized annually for the accidental ingestion of prescription drugs; three-quarters of these are 1- and 2-year-olds, a new study reports.

Twelve active ingredients were involved in almost half of hospitalizations of children for prescription drug poisoning, the researchers found. The most often implicated medicines contained buprenorphine, used for treating narcotic addiction and sometimes as a pain reliever; and clonidine, a substance in medicines for high blood pressure, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and migraines, among other ailments.

Opioid pain relievers like Vicodin and antianxiety drugs like Valium and Xanax accounted for about 28 percent of hospitalizations.

The scientists used data from a surveillance system maintained by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and controlled for the number of prescriptions issued. The findings were published in Pediatrics.

“Individually packaged pills might be one way to make these products safer,” said the senior author, Dr. Daniel S. Budnitz, the director of the Medication Safety Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, he added, “the message now to caregivers is to keep medicines up and out of sight of children, especially immediately after use.”