What are the general precautions before giving any medicine to your child?
- As far as possible, do not try to give any medicines on your own or even give medicines on your pharmacist’s advice. Instead consult your doctor and get a proper prescription for medicines.
- Make sure that the pharmacy is dispensing the same medicine that was prescribed to you. If the name seems to be different, then always confirm with your doctor that the suggested replacement is correct.
- Properly check the medicine bottle/pack for label information, package integrity and expiry.
- Read the medicine information from the inside leaflet.
- Take the liquid medicine in the supplied cap or spoon measure and fill up to the prescribed dose-level. (Note: The std. 1 teaspoonful is 5 ml and 1 tablespoonful is 15 ml. But often the sizes of spoons differ. So giving the medicines in normal kitchen spoons can lead to either under-dosing or over-dosing.)
- Give medicine doses as per medical advice and do not change it according to your whim.
- Keep regular timings for medicine administration.
- After giving medicine, close the medicine-bottle tightly with child-proof cap and then keep it securely in a cool, dry, closed cabinet, out of reach of the children.
Why should we keep the medicine doses at regular timings?
Each medicine is a metabolized in our body and its active component works inside for certain number of hours and then gets either inactive or gets excreted. The doses and intervals of major medicines are decided after pharmacological studies. They are planned in such a manner that their active component retains its activity throughout the day.
Giving the correct amount of dose at the correct time is important, so that the medicine remains active inside the body throughout its complete course.
What should parents know about some commonly used medicines?
- Fever/ Pain medicines:
- Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) is the commonest fever/pain medicine. It is available in different preparations such as infant drops, syrup, suspension, suppository and tablet. These preparations are of different strengths. So make sure which preparation you are using and also confirm its correct dose with your doctor. Paracetamol overdose can cause serious liver and kidney problems and needs specialized treatment.
- Ibuprofen is another popular fever/pain medicine, which can sometimes cause stomach upsets (including ulcers and bleeding) and trigger asthma attacks.
- Aspirin is not used in children as it can cause a serious liver problem called Reye’s syndrome.
2. OTC (Over-the-counter) Cough/Cold medicines are found to be useless, needless and potentially harmful in children below the age of 2 years. Even in older patients, they do not shorten colds. They just mask symptoms without curing the actual illness. Their accidental overdose creates a confusing picture because there are multiple components in them, each with its peculiar effects and side-effects.
Increasing fluid intake, clearing the nose with saline nasal drops and simple paracetamol are often enough to treat these routine colds.
Simple herbal concoctions have been found to be as effective as any OTC cough syrups and they are much safer, too.
3. Allergy medications are mainly of two types- sedative and non-sedative. The first type may cause some sleepiness and needs multiple doses per day to remain effective. The second type usually needs a single dose, which remains effective for a whole day and it usually doesn’t make the patient sleepy.
4. Medicines for diarrhea are needless in most cases. A popular diarrhea-medicine combines two chemicals – Kaolin (to adsorb the toxins) and Pectin (to thicken the stool). Similar actions can be easily achieved through food items such as slightly burnt toast (Charcoal) and semi-ripe fruits (Pectin).
Powder-sachets of helpful bacteria or Probiotics (such as Lactobacilli) are often prescribed in diarrhea but giving plain yoghurt in food serves the same purpose.
Most of the diarrhea cases are caused by viral infections and they just need dietary adjustment, fluid replacement and a little bit of patience.
5. Medicines for constipation come as syrups, suppositories or enemas. These laxatives are only to be used in short-term relief of severe constipation and should be avoided for long-term use as they can cause electrolyte and mineral imbalance in body.
As it is, most cases of constipation are because of faulty bowel habits and they need to be treated through fiber-rich balanced diet, increased fluid intake, exercise and establishment of good toilet habits.
6. Medicines for asthma are given as syrups, chewable tablets, inhalers and nebulizers. People are often needlessly worried about using inhalers and nebulizers; but in reality, they are more effective and much safer than oral bronchodilator medicines.
Overdose of oral bronchodilators can cause tremors and fast or irregular heartbeats.
While using inhalers in children, a special apparatus called spacer is used along with a mask. This method ensures that the child inhales the proper dose of medicine.
7.Multi-vitamins and mineral supplements are often used in the hope that they would increase appetite or make the individual more energetic. Well, they don’t!
- If we give more than the recommended daily allowances of water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C and Vitamin B- complex, they will simply be flushed out through urine.
- Overdoses of fat-soluble Vitamins- A and D can cause serious side-effects as these vitamins can accumulate in the body. One such serious side-effect is increased pressure inside the skull, which affects brain (benign intracranial hypertension)!
- Iron overdose can cause multi-organ failure.
- Calcium overdose can cause kidney stones/damage in the long-term.
8. Homeopathic medicines are by themselves safe to use. The only danger is when the parents/patients switching to homeopathy suddenly stop allopathic medicines in conditions such as asthma or diabetes. This practice many times leads to unnecessary serious complications, which are invariably treated by allopathic doctors!
9. Herbal medicines are popular because they claim no side-effects. It is a myth!
When herbs are made into marketable medicines then they have active chemical ingredients, which can have side-effects similar to any other medicine. After all, if they claim ‘Action’, then there has to be a ‘Reaction’. It is the rule of nature!
10. Antibiotics usage is almost entirely wrapped in myths and misconceptions. Use them only under doctor’s advice and complete the full course.
What are the reasons for medicine overdose?
Medicine overdose can happen if the parent inadvertently administers a wrong medicine/higher dose; if the child consumes it/inhales it for fun or experimentation or occasionally for suicidal purpose.
What are the things to do in such cases?
- Remove the child from the site of exposure and take him for a check-up in the hospital.
- Do not induce vomiting.
- If patient has vomited, then collect the sample to be shown to the doctor.
- Take the medicines and their container along with you for inspection at the hospital.
- Try to get an exact estimation of the quantity of ingested/inhaled medicine.
What will they do in the hospital in such cases?
- Many cases where the medicine is harmless or the quantity is insignificant, then nothing is needed except observation for few hours.
- When the medicine or the quantity of dose is potentially dangerous, then the patient is kept in a special care unit and needs many investigations and various treatment measures such as washing off the stomach (Gastric lavage) or administration of activated charcoal.
How do we prevent accidental medicine overdose?
- Always follow the medical prescription.
- Always use the supplied medicine measure to calculate doses.
- Always maintain the suggested dose-timings.
- Do not change doses by yourself.
- Keep the medicine containers tightly closed with Child-proof caps.
- Keep medicines secure and away from children’s access.
