How to Calculate Drug Dosage for Child
When managing medications for kids, it is highly vital to determine the drug dosage properly. This is done because kids are smaller than grown ups and even a small over or under dosage can result in harmful consequences. There are two various methods to calculate drug dosages for kids. The first bases its calculations just on the weight of the kid and that too in kilograms, and the other calculates on body surface area, which takes into account the kid’s height and weight. The method discussed below is solely weight based.
Instructions
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1
Gather data
Get to know the kid’s body weight in kilograms. If you can’t do that and have the weight in pounds, then use the “pound/kilogram converter” given in the resources area. On the other hand, you can also do the conversion yourself. The rate is 1 kg = 2.2 lb. Moreover, also determine the advised daily dosage by the medical examiner of the child. This will be given along with the drugs or can be read from a paediatric drug handbook. It will reveal the minimum and maximum advised dosages. They are usually expressed in mg/kg/day. For instance, if managing a drug that has a maximum daily dosage of 10 mg/kg/day, within a day you can easily manage 10 mg of the medication to the kid for a kilogram of his body weight. -
2
Doses and tablets
Calculate the number of divided doses that are advised. The number is just the amount of times the medication will be judged within a day that is 24 hours. Moreover, also find the size of the tablets the drugs comes in. This can be obtained easily as it comes along with the medication. However, ignore this if the drug is not being managed in tablet shape. -
3
Find out the dosage
Calculate the minimum advised dosage according to the kid’s body weight. You can determine this by multiplying the number of kilograms that the kids weighs by the daily dosage obtained previously. For instance, if the kid weighs 40 kg and the minimum advised daily dosage is 10 mg/kg/day, multiply 10 by 40 to find the minimum number of milligrams that needs to be administered each day. Also determine the maximum advised dosage for the kid’s body weight. This can be calculated the same way as you determined the minimum recommended dosage. Remember to select the right amount of dosage for the child depending upon maximum and minimum recommendations.
