Most parents face the ongoing problem of accurately calculating toddler medicine dosages and fear the risk of giving their toddlers the wrong dosage. While giving infant medication, the dosage specifications marked on the label are in ml’s (milliliters) or cc’s (cubic centimeters). A doctor’s prescription may define toddler medicine dosages in teaspoon measures. If you didn’t follow the metric system in high school, you have some learning to do.
Administrating the exact dosage of medicine to your toddlers is very important. Giving less than required will not benefit the toddler and delivering an extra dosage of medicine can be detrimental to his health. Various devices are available in the market to help measure toddler medicine dosages accurately.
For kids less than 2 years old, always check with your doctor. You’ll notice that all over the counter medicines do NOT give dosages for this age group, specifically because the children vary widely in size and weight, and are not all ready for the medications.
Here is a list of what is available in the market:
- The Spoon Dropper: This is a plastic dropper that has easy to read calibrations of half teaspoon, one-fourth teaspoon and so on and also in milliliters to help ensure an accurate dosage of medicine to toddlers every time. They come with a tiny cleaner brush to clean the dropper.
- Tablet Crusher: This helps crush the tablet into powder and has a built in storage container to avoid spilling and wastage.
- Tablet Cutters: This device cuts the pill uniformly with a stainless steel blade and has a two-compartment pill storage area. It also has a ‘locking bar’ to provide safety.
- Syringe Dropper: It looks like a syringe, and has markings in ml (milliliters) for easy and accurate dispensing. It’s easy to fit into a baby or toddler mouth and squeeze out the right dosage of medicine for the toddler without spilling. On the plus side, some kids think it’s fun.
Points to remember:
- Doctors generally prescribe medications after taking the child’s age and weight into consideration.
- Dosages will change as the kid grows.
- Reading labels and following prescriptions accurately will go a long way in ensuring good health for your toddler.
I have a child who is on a lot of medications following a lot of stomach problems, the problem myself and myself are having is, when he puts on weight how do we compare that with the correct dosage to give him, as it seems like if he is not given the right dosage for his weight he is being sick. Is there some kind of chart we can have stating this. He is on DOMPERIDONE, LACTULOSE, OMEPERAZOLE AND ERYTHROMYCIN, thanks very much as we would be really greatful to know, as we think we are winning then he is being sick and loosing weight.
Kirsty Doyle
I have a child who is on a lot of medications following a lot of stomach problems, the problem myself and myself are having is, when he puts on weight how do we compare that with the correct dosage to give him, as it seems like if he is not given the right dosage for his weight he is being sick. Is there some kind of chart we can have stating this. He is on DOMPERIDONE, LACTULOSE, OMEPERAZOLE AND ERYTHROMYCIN, thanks very much as we would be really greatful to know, as we think we are winning then he is being sick and loosing weight.
Kirsty Doyle
my five week old daughter was given domperidone in hospital she was given 8 milagrams insted of 8 micrograms ten times the amount she was ment to have her weight at the time was 4.27kg i wabt to know if there are any side or long term effects and also more infomation about the medicine