When Anna was almost one, 3 days after my Mom's first Chemo treatment, and on Good Friday, Anna spiked a high fever. I called the Dr. on call (who was not Koko) and they told me to take her to the E.R.
I was frustrated by that, and even more when they told us in the E.R. to give her a lukewarm bath and give her some more medicine.
But they did give us this magical paper that tells the ACTUAL safe doses of medicine for children. Not like the bottles which just tell you to consult a doctor, which is the most annoying thing ever. I think this paper has been worth the $200 we had to pay for it.
But it has clearly seen better days. Does anyone have any idea how to get another one? Friendly neighborhood ER doc, can you hook me up?
4 comments:
You can find that chart online. I've had to consult it more than once in the middle of the night on my phone.
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/parenting/childhood-illnesses/medicine-cabinet/acetaminophen#T089104
Is one I've printed before.
I got one like yours at some point and it is taped inside a kitchen cabinet--I tried to scan it and it was just a pixelated mess--apparently too roughed up to scan right!
I always think that's silly the label that says, "children under 2, call a doctor." Like the doctor wants to be bothered every time we want to give our baby tylenol!!
Even when we had Ben, our good family friend, Robin (a-la-Plaza Pharmacy!), sent us a goody box of everything you need from a pharmacist for babies, including a really nice laminated chart...for sleepy ER mamas. I really like this one online: http://assets.babycenter.com/ims/Content/acetaminophen_dosage_chart.pdf
It has both the new and the old dosing (the old infant drops had a different concentration than the rest...one of the BEST things to ever happen to acetaminophen was to standardize the concentration -- so much safer!)
In general, you can give children 15 mg/kg of acetaminophen every 4-6 hours (that's KG, not pounds, mind you.).
And...even cooler...the dosage of ibuprophen is 10 mg/kg. And the concentration in the bottles (100 mg/tsp) is such that it usually works out that whatever the dosage of acetaminophen is, it's the same dose of ibuprophen! (i.e. 1 tsp of acetaminophen means they'll likely get 1 tsp of ibuprophen...GENIUS!!)
Here is a chart for ibuprophen: http://assets.babycenter.com/ims/Content/ibuprofen_dosage_chart.pdf
***You can only give ibuprophen to babies over 6 months of age.
And if you're going to give both, put a piece of paper on the kitchen counter or the fridge and write down what you gave and when, so you don't accidentally overdose them on either. (Both dangerous, but acetaminophen overdose particularly so.)
Love getting a professional shout-out!
If you are ever in town, bring those babies to my ER!! :)
Wow, Molly-PERFECT! I'm printing all of that right now, and making notes of the other things you said, and I'll have to include some sort of kg to pounds translation because I'm an American and all. :)
Post a Comment