Experts in child health recommend that parents ensure any medication given to their young children, particularly those under the age of five, is prescribed by a healthcare professional in order to prevent incorrect dosages.

They emphasize that giving the wrong amount of medication to children can have more serious consequences compared to the same mistake made with an adult. Children are more susceptible to medication errors due to their smaller size, differing stages of development, communication challenges, and unique treatment needs.

Incorrectly administered medication can be fatal for children, as their bodies are still growing and developing. Physicians advise against giving children a smaller dose of medication intended for adults when they are unwell. Studies show that errors in prescribing medication occur more frequently in children and are more likely to result in harm.

Despite efforts to address this issue, there is still room for improvement in ensuring the safety of medication use in children. A thorough understanding of the causes and nature of medication errors is crucial in order to make progress in this area.

Dr. Olugbenga Mokuolu, a famous paediatrician and Professor of Paediatrics at the College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, cautioned parents against the practice of administering half of an adult dose of medication to their children.

Dr. Mokuolu, who is also a Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, emphasized that reducing the dosage for children by half is not a recommended approach.

“It is not a good practice to give children half the adult dosage of a medication.

“The way the dose of a drug that a child will take is calculated is different from how adult doses are calculated. And sometimes, it is not just a question of adult dose.

“The way we prescribe drugs for children is that we always relate the dose of the drugs we want to prescribe to their body size. So, that is the critical issue.

“Sometimes, the dose that a child may take may be as high as a dose an adult will take. It depends on what we calculate because we relate it to every child.

“That is the important thing and that is why we discourage this type of practice of using adult dosages for children.”

Mokuolu emphasized the importance of parents seeking guidance from healthcare professionals when dosing medications for their children, cautioning against complacency.

He highlighted the significance of considering a child’s age when determining the appropriate dosage of medication.

“For instance, if you look at a child, a child is anybody from a newborn to somebody who is 14 years old. So, which dose are you going to use if you are just going to reduce the adult dose?

” So, the spectrum of what constitutes a child is so important that parents should be guided by their health worker on the dosing of a drug.

” They should not take it for granted that it will be half of an adult dose. There is no half of an adult dose in some cases, it will become too much. In some cases, it may be too little.

“So, the summary is that parents should be guided properly”, he inserted.

The researcher advised parents to seek apt help or guidance when their children are ill, mentioning that community health workers are available to provide help when it comes to administering medication to children.

He summarized , “We recommend that they should take their children to the hospital and not go buy a drug that works for child A for child B. We want to discourage them from all these practices”

According to Dr. Claire McCarthy, a primary care paediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, parents should ensure they comprehend the instructions before administering medication to their children. Dr. McCarthy emphasized that the most common mistakes parents make when giving their children medication are related to overdosing.

“with 21 per cent giving more than twice the recommended dose of the medication.”

“Truly scary. People mess up in two ways: either measuring it wrong or misunderstanding the instructions. Which is completely understandable, but the consequences can be dangerous” she added.