Medication dosing errors: Are you giving your child the right dose?
Unlike adult medications, pediatric medications rely heavily on liquid formulations and parents have to use appropriate dosing tools with standard markings such as syringes and dosing cups to accurately administer the medication to their child. [ps2id url=’https://goo.gl/sDksnw’ offset=”]This article[/ps2id] published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics discusses how dosing errors are influenced by the design of such dosing tools. Excerpts from the study which involved 2099 parents are described below: •More than 80% of parents made one or more dosing errors (greater than 20% deviation from the normal dose) • More than 20% of parents made one or more large dosing error (greater than 2 times the normal dose) • More dosing errors were made with cups than syringes, especially with small dose amounts. This suggests that it is ideal to use a syringe rather than a dosing cup to effectively administer a 2.5 mL or a 5 mL dose • Parents made less errors wit...