Hacks :: Kid-Proof Drug Bags

Keeping your kids safe from your pharmaceuticals

I can’t find a proper kid-proof drug bag, so I’ve hacked one.

Why would I care about a kid-proof drug bag? It turns out that kids get smashed by accidental poisoning from household medicines pretty regularly (yeah, nice and light reading eh…)

While we’ve installed all sorts of child-proof locks on our cupboards, both my wife and I leave pharma within much easier reach in our bags. Mostly just pain-killers (which can be lethal in large doses), but also some anti-inflammatories, anti-this’s and anti-that’s.

So I guess this is a post to warn other parents they may have an issue, and then to encourage sharing of any good solutions you guys may already have worked out. If any brands want to jam with us on a better solution, please reach out.

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The requirements

Any bag I run with as my daily carry gets a pocket assigned to toiletries (including pharmaceuticals). I figured if I could find a small child-proof pouch to tuck inside these pockets, I should have a pretty easy solution. I can imagine a smaller pouch again for my wife’s handbag.

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The hack

I’ve started with a really light Eagle Creek Pack-It Specter Quick Trip, which has a good strong piping running past the side pockets. I’ve then just pricked a small hole beside it, and now I have an anchor for the lock.

While I started with locks on 2 pockets, I’ve since moved to only one pocket being locked. I don’t need to lock the whole thing up, as toothbrushes and anti-perspirant are relatively harmless. So it’s now one side pocket which gets anything slightly dangerous (or candy-looking).

I’m on the scope for a small combo-lock, as I don’t want to stress about keys with this. I’ll swap the lock over as soon as I find a good one. And for sure it would be nice to have a sweet integrated travel lock system, but this is totally sufficient for now.

And as mentioned, I’ll also develop a smaller pouch for my wife’s handbag needs. It won’t need all the toiletry action, so it will only be large enough for some painkillers.

And that’s about it. If you have the right kit, it should only take 60 seconds to set up, but it might just save your kid. I figure that’s probably worth the time spent.