Administering a child’s medication.

When a proper diagnosis has been made and the most appropriate medicine selected. the child’s doctor is home free. But the third, and often most decisive factor, is the parent’s responsibility to administer the medicine correctly. Ten to thirty percent of treatment failures are directly due to inadequate administration of an effective drug. If the doctor’s directions are vague, or you don’t understand them. ask for clarification. Quite a lot of children are very adverse to taking medicine and it can be a real battle but using perseverance and the following tips should see you through.

Dosage

Most medications are prescribed in proportion to a child’s weight. Accurate liquid measurements are important. “One teaspoonful” does not
mean any old teaspoon. It means one measuring teaspoonful, or ,5, .0 cubic-centimw (cc). “One-half teaspoonful does not mean guessing when an ordinary spoon is
half full, it means 2.5 cc, or a full half-teaspoon measuring spoon. (Of course, after you have measured the medicine you may transfer the potion to any convenient spoon for giving the medicine to’ your child.) If your child vomits within one hour of receiving medication you can assume that the dose has been lost and repeat it.

Timing

“Four times a day” means that four doses should be given within every 24 hours, but the child’s sleep doesn’t need to be interrupted. Common sense dictates that the four doses should be spread out as widely as is possible and convenient while the child is awake. “Every six hours” means just that: one dose is given every six hours around the clock.

Duration

Most relapses and many complications are the result of stopping medication prematurely. Often a child feels and acts well before he is well. Earaches stop, fevers vanish, coughs subside, and appetites return when germs are merely stunned and healing scarcely begun. Strep infections require 10 or more days of antibiotic therapy before the infection is gone. Urinary tract infections and ear infections often take even longer to cure, although symptoms may disappear in a day. So be sure you continue any medication for as long as it has been prescribed. “Give for 10 full days,” “Continue for two weeks,” “Give until finished,” are not suggestions, but directions with a purpose. They should be considered orders.

Methods

Administration of medicines to children is a vital skill for all responsible parents to master. Of course, infants and children are not always willing and eager to take their medicines. On the other hand, since you know what’s best for your child, you are the one to decide. A parent who reports to a doctor that a child will not accept a medicine forces the doctor to resort to a second-best treatment and sometimes to hospitalize the child for nurses to administer the medication.

Infants and Toddlers

Oral, liquid medicines can be given to young children directly from a spoon (after careful measuring) or by a non-glass medicine dropper used to squirt the liquid slowly into a cheek. Take care to avoid directing the stream forcefully against the back of the throat and down the windpipe. Disguising medicine in a small quantity of juice, ice cream, applesauce, and the like is acceptable, provided the child takes the entire potion. A sweet treat may be offered after medication to cut the objectionable taste.

A young child, approached reassuringly, kindly, but firmly, often will passively accept medication. If the child struggles and refuses, other approaches must be found to administer the medicine. An enraged or terrified child can be soothed into cooperation by being totally immobilized. This is accomplished by “mummying.” With the arms pinioned to the sides, the child is wrapped tightly in a folded sheet from neck to toes. Within minutes a mummied and cuddled child will be ready to accept oral medicines, at least on the second or third try. Any attempt to spit out the medicine should be countered by a restraining hand placed calmly over the mouth. (Swaddling or mummying is equally effective for administering nose drops.)

Although some infants and toddlers accept chewable tablets of medicine or even swallow whole tablets or capsules, these forms of medication are dangerous in this age group. A child under three can easily choke to death on a bulky pill. If liquid forms of the medicine are not available, tablets should be mashed and the contents of capsules emptied into juice or food before administering them to a toddler.

Older Children

Many children over five or six can swallow tablets and capsules whole. Start with relatively unimportant medicines such as aspirin when your child has a headache. And only attempt it if he is willing. Help him to learn to swallow a pill by placing it on the back of his tongue before giving him something to drink, or include it in a half-teaspoonful of applesauce, jelly, or ice cream and have him swallow the entire thing. (A special glass that delivers a pill into the mouth automatically when the first gulp of the liquid in the glass is taken is also available.)

Rectal Medications

Many medicines are available in suppository form. They include antiemetics, aspirin, paracetamol, antihistamines, sedatives, anticonvulsants, antibiotics, antiasthmatics, cough medicines, and laxatives. Although valuable when a child is vomiting or unconscious, they are not as well absorbed as oral medications and have limited applicability. Caution: They are not to be used routinely as a substitute on a child who is reluctant to accept oral medicines. Teaching the child the necessity of cooperating is also an important issue.
(Those medicines referred to under each ailment profile as “OTC” are over-the-counter preparations and may be obtained without a prescription.)

Tags: Children's health, children's medication, taking medicine