Medicine Safety

Dr. Parang Mehta, MD.

Medication errors are a huge problem in hospitals, causing a very large number of adverse effects, added sickness, and even deaths. Home medication is not often so dangerous, but errors in giving medicines often cause delayed recovery, unwanted or dangerous side effects, and toxicity.

Prescription Safety

Medicine safety begins with your prescription, of course. If the prescription is unsound, safety is compromised at the first step.

Non Prescription Medicine

Many medicines are available without a prescription. These OTC (Over The Counter) drugs are generally safe for use, but it is important to read the product insert for safety considerations.

While the OTC drugs themselves are usually safe, the situation may not be. What we see as a simple cough and fever may in fact be pneumonia. Many serious illnesses can have their signs supressed by OTC drugs. If a child is not improving after a day or two of OTC medicine, a doctor's consultation is important.

Do You Trust Your Children?

Well, most parents trust their children. It inculcates a sense of responsibility. However, it is a bad area to entrust medicine taking to young children. Drugs need to be taken exactly as prescribed for optimal results, and are dangerous if not handled exactly as intended. Very young children should be given their medicine by parents, older ones should be supervised.

How young is too young to be trusted? It's variable, of course. Some children are mentally mature for their physical ages, while even some teenagers are not dependable. Every parent has to make a decision on their child's suitability for being responsible for his/her own medication.

What about school? Children spend a substantial part of their day in school, and may need to take one or more doses of their medicines there. Here too, the maturity of the child is important. For young children, it is better to involve the class teacher in medicine administration in school hours.

Medicine Storage

Medicine storage is very important. Very young children often find the taste good, and go on taking doses if the medicine is accessible. Medicines should be stored out of the reach of children.

Some medicines are dangerous. These should be disposed of as soon as their use is over. For example the medicines for application to cure scabies or head lice are usually poisonous if taken by mouth. Such medicines should be removed from the home as soon as their use is done.

Never keep medicines without proper labels which tell about the content and use.

Regularly review the medicine cupboard, and throw away all medicines that have passed their expiry date.

 

Last revision: September 16, 2011

Measurements

Measurements are very important when giving medicines to children. Solid medicine forms are measured in grams and milligrams, while liquids are measured in millilitres. Other forms of measurement like teaspoons and drops are inaccurate and dangerous.

A millilitre is the thousandth part of a litre. Most syrups are sold with a measuring cup. Drops are sold with a dropper. Measuring cups and droppers are marked with various levels for millilitres or parts of a millilitre.

Spoons are unreliable. They vary greatly in capacity, and cannot be depended on for accurate dosage. Over or under dosage is common with prescriptions written in spoons. Millilitres are always better.

Similarly, drops. Most liquids have 15-20 drops per millilitre, but a very thick (viscous) liquid could have less. Thus, a child prescribed 15 drops could get more than a millilitre, and an overdose. A prescription is always safer in millilitres.

Contact Information

Dr. Parang Mehta,
Mehta Childcare,
Opposite Putli, Sagrampura,
Surat. Tel: +91 98241 53923.
Email: