Healthy Habits: Medication Dosing

When your kids are sick, the last thing you want to do is risk creating more complications by giving them incorrect dosing - either too much that may be harmful, or too little that may not be effective. One of the most common types of medicine parents give kids is a pain reliever/fever reducer.

There's an easy-to-remember acronym to help you remember the best way to give your child the right amount: NURSE
- Never give adult medicines to children.
- Use the measuring device (syringe, dropper, dosage cup) that comes with the medicine every time you use it. Don’t use kitchen spoons (teaspoons or tablespoons).
- Read and follow instructions on the label. Never give more than the recommended dose and do not give the medication more frequently than recommended.
- Store all medicines out of the reach of children. Immediately following use, always restore the child resistant cap and put the medicine back into a high and out of sight location.
- Every child grows. Know the infant’s or child’s weight and/or age to help determine the appropriate dosage.

To help make it easier to give accurate dosing, Tylenol is updating their products. These improvements are designed to enhance safety and convenience. The bottles will have a protective opening, and infant varieties will have a newly designed syringe. Plus, it's going to be the same concentration for infants and children. So for the next little bit, you'll want to carefully read the bottles, to make sure you're using the right dose for that concentration, but in the long run, it means you'll only need one bottle for children of multiple ages, as long as you properly use your child's weight for dosing amounts.

And this isn't just Tylenol. Tylenol is encouraging all other makers of acetaminophen products to make these changes as well, so even if you don't use Tylenol, you may see these changes coming to the brand you do use.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Tylenol and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”