Syringes Beat
Spoons For Children’s Medicine
Parents should avoid using household teaspoons to
give children medicine as sizes can vary widely, leading to both under- and
overdoses, a study warns.
US and Greek researchers looked at teaspoons in 25
households and found that the largest was three times the size of the smallest.
They also found that when asked to use 5ml medicine
spoons, people poured in varying quantities.
To avoid dosage differences, the team urged parents
to use syringes.
The study in the International Journal of Clinical
Practice looked at more than 70 teaspoons collected from 25 homes in Greece.
Low Risk
The team from the Alfa Institute of Biomedical
Sciences in Athens suggested that a parent using the largest domestic teaspoon
would be giving their child nearly three times as much medicine as the smallest.
Most households in the study had between one and
three types of different teaspoons and wide variations and considerable
differences were also within the households. In addition, when they asked five
people to measure out medicine in a calibrated 5ml spoon, they found that only
one gave the correct dose.
Syringes are increasingly given out with
over-the-counter medicines such as child paracetamol and ibuprofen.
The risks of harm occurring as a result of parents
giving too much of these products in a single dose is thought to be very small
indeed.
A spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of
Great Britain said: “In the UK medicines for children are sold with a spoon, or
sometimes a syringe that allows parents and carers to measure and accurate dose.
“People collecting NHS prescription medicines for
children will be supplied with either a spoon or syringe to allow an accurate
dose to be given.
“Pharmacists would always recommend that parents and
carers only use spoons or syringes which are designed for the administration of
medicines if they are giving liquid medicines to children.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10630153
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