I have been getting a lot of questions lately about correct Tylenol dosing. In the effort by the companies to make things simple, things have gotten awfully confusing.
What used to be known as concentrated infant Tylenol drops ( 80mg/1 ml) is no longer supposed to be available. Most of what is being sold is now Tylenol suspension ( 160 mg/5 ml)
Okay moms and dads..It is time to brush off your math skills.
In order to make sure that your child is getting the proper dose regardless of what form you have, from now on we need to focus on how many milligrams of medication your child should get.
Somewhere on the label it should say how many mg there are per ml.
milliliters are standard units of measurement. There are always 5 ml (milliliters)in a teaspoon.
How many milliGRAMS there are in a milliliter will vary from medication to medication.
Once again, In the case of Tylenol the most popular concentration is now 160mg/5ml but please take a moment to find that info on the label ( it might be small) just to be certain.
the proper dosing for the 160/5ml concentration will be as follows
5-8 pounds 40 mg 1/4 teaspoon 1.25 ml
9-10 pounds 60 mg 1/3 teaspoon 1.7 ml
11-16 pounds 80 mg 1/2 teaspoon 2.5 ml
17-21 pounds 120 mg 3/4 teaspoon 3.75 ml
22-26 pounds 160 mg 1 teaspoon 5 ml
27-32 pounds 200 mg 1 1/4 teaspoon 6.25 ml
33-37 pounds 240 mg 1 1/2 teaspoons 7.5 ml
38-42 pounds 280 mg 2 teaspoons 10 ml
Tylenol doses can be repeated every 4-6 hours as needed.
If your baby is under 6 weeks it is essential that you report any elevated fever or significant fussiness rather than automatically treating with Tylenol or Advil.
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2 comments:
Recently I read that there might be a correlation between acetaminophen use and increased rates in childhood asthma. Any merit to that? Should ibuprofen be our fever reducer/pain reliever of choice?
Great question.
There are some recent studies out there that we are actively looking into. In the meanwhile, we would avoid giving any medications unnecessarily but are not concerned about using proper doses of tylenol.
Ibuprofen is always a good alternate choice. In some cases it seems to work better and it certainly lasts a bit longer, but it can be tougher on the tummy so it is important to give it with food.
I will update you when we have formed more of an opinion.
These "scares" about various medications come along routinely and often there isn't much real statistical basis for alarm
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