A baby with a chronic illness may need to have one or more medications, possibly for long periods of time. Often these medications are given at home by the parents or a caregiver.

The parents and/or the caregiver of a chronically-ill baby may find times when he or she is under great stress. When this happens, attention to detail can go lacking, and a resultant problem could be improper dosage of medication given to the child.

A recent study at a Toronto hospital performed in 2004 found that 47% of parents who brought their children to the hospital’s Emergency Room had given the recommended dose of medication, but 41% gave their children too little and 12% gave them too much. That’s over 50% of the children not getting the correct dose of medication! And it has been reported that in France, 30% of pediatric calls to poison centers involve infants; with the most common concern being an error in dosage of medication.

Yes, unfortunately, medication errors do happen. However, in just 5-minutes or less you can take steps that can help you reduce errors in giving medication at home. Following are a few common-sense suggestions that you may find helpful.

Suggestion 1: Have one person in charge of medications.
In our home, we have found that if one person is in charge of giving the medications each day it makes the issue of when and how much is given significantly easier to deal with. An expert at the Oklahoma Poison Control Center noted in a recent article on the Web that “Overdoses can result when multiple caretakers give extra doses of medicine.” When two people are involved confusion can happen.

When it is not possible to have just one person give the medication (for such reasons as conflicting work schedules) then good communication between those giving the medicine is critical. The next suggestion may be helpful.

Suggestion 2: Use a daily recording chart.
Try using a simple chart to track when medicine is given, and how much was given. Following is a sample of a recording chart that we use at our home.

Simple? Yes. Have we found it helpful? Absolutely!

You can make a chart like this on a computer, or just use a note pad. We strongly suggest you include the “date” since medications might be given for a specific length of time, and this could help you track “start-to-finish” dates.

Suggestion 3: Following doctors, and medications, directions—exactly!
Pretty simply, follow the orders on how and when to give the medications. Read the label and advisory notices that come with the medicine. Keep an eye out for possible negative effects of the medication—if you see or suspect any, inform your health care professional pronto!

Suggestion 4: Keep medications in one central (and safe) area.
Keep medicines locked up and out of the reach of children, even if they have child resistant caps. (This can be difficult—but still important—to do if the medicine needs to be refrigerated.) Don’t be fooled into thinking that a child resistant cap will prevent an accidental poisoning, they only slow a determined children down.

Suggestion 5: Use a dosing device.
Don’t use household items such as teaspoons and tablespoons to give medication because they come in all different shapes and sizes. Instead, dosing devices available at pharmacies are the way to go. They are easy to use and have easy-to-read numbers. We use a system that includes a cap for the bottle, and a dosing device that attaches to it and draws the medication out of the bottle. We’ve found it to not only make dosing more accurate, but there is less waste of medicine—and that saves money.
Check with your pharmacist or physician if unsure about the type of measuring device to use.

For more information on this subject, check out these Web sites:

• http://mediresource.sympatico.ca/channel_health_news_detail.asp?channel_id=133&menu_item_id=4&news_id=3389
• http://www.chiropracticresearch.org/NEWSdrug_errors_in_children_draw_ala.htm
• http://www.oklahomapoison.org/news/index.asp?InterestID=869
• http://www.chpa¬info.org/web/for_consumers/publications/Kids_Arent_Small_Adults.aspx

Important
The advice in this guide is just what has worked for our child, and was based on advice that we received from health-care providers and on publicly available web sites. As with all our information we strongly recommend that you first check with a knowledgeable health-care provider to make sure that what you do is best and safest for your child.

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