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It’s 1:30 in the morning, and Mrs. Mahoney is very concerned. She’s rocking her 8 year old Johnny in her arms trying to comfort him and get him to sleep. She had taken Johnny to the doctor earlier that day with a bad earache, and even though she had given him the prescribed medication along with a children’s pain and fever medicine, he still has a fever of 103.5° F and continues to be in quite a bit of pain. After a rough night, Mrs. Mahoney calls the doctor and is relieved to learn that she simply didn’t give Johnny enough pain and fever medicine to be effective. This is not an unusual story. In fact, incorrect dosing is a very common problem with children’s pain and fever reducers. To be sure your child receives the correct amount of medicine, there are two things you should do: Give the correct dose and make sure that your child takes it. To ensure correct dosing for any child, you should always dose by weight rather than by age. How do you know the correct dose? Like adults, children come in all sizes and shapes -- and weights. We’ve all seen the 8 year old child who looks like 12 and vice versa. When giving children’s medicine, age can only be a rough guideline -- dosing by weight is much more accurate. You should look for dosage by weight recommendations on the package, or you can check with your doctor or pharmacist. And now you can instantly find out exactly how much fever or pain medication to give your child with the TYLENOL* Dosage Calculator at www.tylenol.ca. Simply type in your child's age and weight then click on the TYLENOL* products for which you want dosage details – the TYLENOL* Dosage Calculator does the rest. How do you get your child to take the medicine? Does this sound familiar? You’ve carefully measured out the correct amount of medicine for your child, somehow managed to negotiate it into his or her mouth -- and he/she promptly spits it out. Now you have a problem because you don’t know how much medicine they swallowed. If you don’t give more, you risk not reducing their pain or fever. If you try giving them more of the same bad tasting medicine, it will likely turn into an unpleasant battle of wills as you try to get a firmly closed little mouth to open up again. Fortunately, modern technology has solved the bad taste problem with something called suspension: a good tasting liquid that surrounds tiny particles of medicine, completely hiding the taste of the medicine. This technique was first used with prescription medicines like antibiotics to hide their bad taste. Now, many over-the-counter (OTC) children’s medications are also available in good-tasting suspensions like Children’s TYLENOL* acetaminophen in grape or bubble gum flavour and Children’s MOTRIN* ibuprofen in berry, grape and bubble gum.
What product form should I give my child? It shouldn’t be difficult to find a pain and fever medicine your child will take. You can choose from a variety of flavours and several different formulations (drops, chewable tablets, liquids or elixir) to suit your child’s age and preference.
Choosing the best format for your child depends on their age, and as they become older, on which format they prefer. No matter how effective a medicine is, it can only do its job if your child takes it. For infants and babies up to about 2 years of age, drops are best and are available in either oral solution or in suspension. Over 2 years old, once the child is able to drink from a cup, a liquid suspension or elixir can be used. And once they begin chewing, they can also use chewable tablets. As the child becomes older, from about 6 to 11, there are junior strength products available, in chewable tablets. The advantage of junior strength is that it contains more medicine in each dose. Therefore, an older, larger child needs fewer junior strength tablets to get the same amount of medicine as in more of the children’s strength. And of course, if the child does not like to chew tablets, the liquid suspension or elixir is still a good option.
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