Question 987009: 10.) Just as you are recovering, your child falls ill. You know that there have been mistakes in your medication dosages, so you hurriedly scan the Internet to make sure that what the doctor is giving your child is safe. The doctor orders 2 things:
A. 150mg of an antibiotic to be given every 6 hrs. Your child weighs 30lb. Your research indicates that 20-40mg/kg/day is recommended dosage. Is this prescription safe for your child? If not, what would the maximum safe dosage be every 6 hours?
B. 15ml of Tylenol3 to be given every 4-6 hrs. Your research indicates that there are 12mg codeine per 5ml of liquid and that the safe dosage is between 0.5 and 1mg/kg/dose every 4-6 hrs. Is this prescription safe for your child? If not, what would the maximum safe dosage be every 4-6 hrs?
Answer by Boreal(15235)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The dosage is 600 mg a day, since it is given every 6 hours.
The weight of the child is 13.64 kg
600 mg/day/13.64 kg is the right units and it is 44. That is too high by 10%. I would give 135 mg every six hours, 10% less. The total daily dose would be 540 mg, which is 39.60 mg/kg/day. Alternatively, one could give 150 mg three times a day, or 450 mg/day. That would be 33 mg/kg/day, which would also be suitable.
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Each dose should be between 0.5 and 1 mg/kg
15 ml of Tylenol #3 contains 36 mg of codeine, since it is three times 5 ml.
That is 2.64 mg/kg, which is too much by a factor of 2.5 to 5.
The child should get about 20-40% of that amount prescribed or about 5 ml, not 15 ml. That would be 12 mg of codeine per dose, and that would be 0.88 mg/kg/dose.
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