Children are more than sensitive to medications than adults are. If given in the wrong dose or at the wrong fourth dimension, even some of the most benign over-the-counter (OTC) medicines tin can be ineffective or harmful. Here'south how to requite medicine to your kids with confidence.

Ask the pros

Talk with your chemist or physician about the medicine you'll be giving your kid. If information technology's a prescription medication, inquire what, specifically, it's for and what side effects might occur. Find out how soon it should brainstorm to take upshot and how long the prescription should final.

Will it interact with any other medications your child takes? And what should you do if you miss giving your child a dose? Does the medicine demand to exist kept in the refrigerator, or out of the heat or light? Tin you lot put information technology in food, or should y'all avoid giving your kid sure foods at the same time he takes the medicine?

Some medicines take to be taken after eating or, conversely, on an empty stomach. Others are captivated into the body more than effectively if they're accompanied past particular foods.

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Are there other precautions to take, like keeping your kid out of the sunlight while he'south on the medicine? Before you head home, make sure y'all empathize the dosage and how and when to give it.

If you lot're considering an over-the-counter medicine, first enquire your doctor or pharmacist if it's rubber for your kid. If the package doesn't specify a child's dose, information technology may non be appropriate. Again, enquire nearly possible side effects and interactions with other medications.

Besides exist certain to tell the doctor and chemist about any allergies your child has.

Get the dose right

In a 1997 report published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, seventy percent of parents had problem figuring out how much medicine to requite. Then if those labels occasionally baffle you, you're not alone.

Researchers at Emory Academy's Schoolhouse of Medicine in Atlanta found that just most 40 per centum of the 100 caregivers (including parents) in the study were able to state the right dose for their child, and only 43 percent were able to mensurate a dosage accurately. Overall, only 30 percent of the caregivers were able to both accurately place and measure the right amount of medicine for their child.

How can you make sure your child is getting the amount of medicine he needs? Read the characterization very carefully. Read it when you buy or choice upwardly a new medicine, when it's time to administer it, and while you're pouring it out.

Follow the directions on the package to the letter to ensure that your child is getting the right dose for his age and weight. If you don't understand the instructions, call the pharmacist or medico.

Here are a few more than specifics to go on in heed:

  • Examine the numbers in the directions very carefully so yous don't accidentally double or halve a dose. When yous're hurrying, it'southward all likewise easy to look at "1/2" and see "two." Read the instructions and measure out the dosage in good low-cal.
  • Exist aware that some over-the-counter medication for babies, like babe acetaminophen, is concentrated. (Don't employ it to give an older child his normal dosage.)
  • Know your child's weight. Some dosages are based on weight, or weight and age. It might assist to notation your child's current weight on a bit of paper in your medicine cabinet. Don't worry if the most recent number you accept is a couple of weeks old — go with the effigy you got at your child's last doc visit. Or step on a bathroom calibration property your child and and so subtract your weight from the full.
  • Be sure to milkshake liquid medicines before giving them to your child if information technology says to do and so on the label. That way you can be sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed, and then your child won't go as well much or too little of them.
  • Don't confuse teaspoons (tsp. or t) and tablespoons (Tbsp. or T). In whatsoever case, there's almost no medicine your kid will need a whole tablespoon of, then retrieve in terms of teaspoons.
  • Don't practice conversions in your head. If a recommended dose is two teaspoons, only your syringe or medicine dropper doesn't have measuring marks for teaspoons, don't but give information technology your best guess — apply a measuring spoon this time and go a properly calibrated syringe or dropper for side by side time. Go along in mind: 1 milliliter (ml) = 1 cc and i teaspoon = 5 cc.
  • Never give your child more medicine than is recommended on the label or in the instructions. Even if he has a astringent cold, ear infection, sore throat, or fever, more than medicine isn't better. Dosages are based on the amount of medicine that'south safe, non on the severity of the illness.
  • Phone call your child's doctor if you notice whatsoever unexpected side effects.
  • If yous do brand a mistake and give your child a bit also much medicine, information technology's not probable to do him any lasting harm — but check with your doctor or pharmacist to be certain.
  • If for some reason your child tin can't or won't accept the right amount of medicine, possibly because he'south vomiting and can't keep anything down, let his doctor know. The doctor may cull another method — by injection or suppository, or intravenously, for example — to make certain your child gets the handling he needs.
  • Finally, don't give your kid another child'due south prescription, an erstwhile prescription, or aspirin, which can cause a serious illness called Reye's syndrome. And review our article on medicines y'all should never give your babe or toddler, or child.

It'due south all in the delivery

One of the best means to ensure that your kid gets the right amount of medicine is to use the right tool. That means putting the kitchen spoon back in the drawer (considering kitchen spoons vary in size) — and using a dosage spoon, medicine dropper, dosage loving cup, or oral syringe specifically designed to assistance yous mensurate and administrate the right dose.

Your best bet is to apply a plastic oral syringe marked with different measurements. For babies, syringes piece of work better than spoons because you tin can be sure y'all're getting all the medicine into your kid'south mouth and downward his throat.

If you utilize a dropper and your baby tries to spit out his medicine, use your finger to pull his cheek open and endeavour squeezing the medicine into one of his cheek pockets. Leave your finger in his mouth until he swallows the medicine — that style it will go down instead of out.

In a pinch, it's all right to use a "true" measuring spoon — the kind you utilize to measure cooking ingredients — but these are frequently very difficult to get into (and empty into) a very young child'south oral cavity.

Timing is everything

Read labels carefully to find out how often you should be giving your child a particular medicine. If it says "iv times per day," give information technology four times during your child'due south waking hours — you don't have to wake him upwards for another dose. If, on the other mitt, the directions say "every 6 hours," you'll accept to observe out whether that means your child needs the medicine around the clock, waking or sleeping.

If it'south a prescription medicine, inquire the doctor who prescribed it. If it's an over-the-counter remedy, talk to your pharmacist.

Remember to follow the directions about whether the medication should be given with meals or on an empty tum, and if there are foods you lot should avoid or partner with the medication.

If it seems similar yous've been giving your child medicine for a long fourth dimension simply aren't getting anywhere, check the directions. If his symptoms aren't getting whatsoever better, continuing beyond the recommended fourth dimension limit won't do him whatsoever good. At that point, it's probably time to talk to his doctor.

On the other manus, be certain to give your child the full grade of any antibody he's prescribed, standing for as long as your md recommends, even if he seems fully recovered. Otherwise you can't be certain that the bacterial infection is actually gone.

Help the medicine go down

Your child may resist taking medicine, especially if it doesn't gustation very good. If that'south the instance, you lot may want to inquire the pharmacist about a season mix-in (which can give the medicine a variety of different tastes) to arrive more palatable. Don't mix medicine into a bottle of milk or loving cup of juice, nonetheless. If your child doesn't drink the whole matter, he won't go a full dose.

If your child is old enough to eat solids, another option is to inquire your md about getting medicine in tablet form. That way you tin can crush it upwardly and mix it into a trivial yogurt or applesauce.

Be upbeat when giving your child his medicine, but don't call medicine "candy." Saying that medicine is a treat may make information technology easier to go him to take it at start, but the technique can backfire. If he somehow comes across the bottle, he may determine to finish it off on his ain.

Store drugs safely

Try to continue medicines in their original packaging unless the complete instructions and ingredients are right on the bottle. Similarly, if you exercise lose a characterization or a gear up of directions, throw the medicine abroad. Giving it your best estimate isn't worth the hazard.

Many antibiotics (and some other medicines) need to be refrigerated. Some tin can exist left out on the counter for a few minutes or tucked inside your purse or diaper bag for the drive to daycare or school. Others need to be kept absurd constantly, at home and on the go.

Ask your pharmacist to go over any specific guidelines and storage recommendations with you lot. Keep medicines that don't need to be refrigerated in a cool, dry place. Don't keep them in your bathroom medicine cabinet, which can go warm and moist from the shower.

Continue all medicines safely out of attain, and follow our proficient's advice on the best style to dispose of expired medication.