As medical personnel, in administering drugs, there are six things that we must pay attention to, known as the correct 6 principles of drug administration, namely the correct patient, correct drug, correct dose, correct method / route, correct time and correct documentation. These 6 principles must be taken into account when giving medicines to patients both for adults and even more so for babies and children.
How to calculate the dose of drug administration for infants and children
The accuracy of the dosage in drug administration is very important for the patient's recovery. Compared with adults, children and infants have physiological functions that are not as complete as organs in adults. This is because the child's organs (liver, kidney and central nervous system) are still very unstable and have not functioned properly, so the dosage should be adjusted according to the condition of the baby and child. In order to get the expected effect of the drug because if it is not calculated correctly the dosage of the drug may be deficient, causing the resulting drug effect to be not optimal. and if an overdose is certainly even worse, it can cause an over dose, which can be fatal.
So based on the reasons above. it is important to be able to calculate the correct dosage of drugs in infants and children. However, in practice, it is not uncommon for a health worker to encounter problems in calculating drug dosages, especially those for infants and children.
Here we try to discuss how to calculate the dose of drug administration in infants and children. There are lots of formulas that can be used to calculate the dosage of drugs for babies and children, but on this occasion we will discuss some simple and easy formulas, please look at the explanation below:
How to Calculate the Dosage of Children's Medicine
1. Calculating the dose of drug administration for infants using the Fried formula
This formula is often used for babies who are still in a matter of months. for the formula and how to calculate it, please pay attention below:
Description of the fried formula:
Da: Child dosage
m: age of the child in months
Dd: Adult dosage
150: Fried's statute.
Example: a 6 month old baby. high fever for 1 day, and has been prescribed by the doctor to get paracetamol with an adult dose of 500 mg, what dose should be given to this baby?
Answer:
so the dose that can be given to these babies is 20 mg each time.
Download the Fried Formula HERE
2. calculate the dose of drug administration for infants and children based on the Dilling formula
This formula is usually used for children aged 8 years and over
Information :
Da: Child dosage
n: Age of child in years
Dd: Adult dosage
Example:
a child 10 years old. high fever for 1 day, and has been prescribed by the doctor to get paracetamol with an adult dose of 500 mg, what dose should be given to this baby?
Answer:
so the dose that can be given to children above is 250 mg each time.
Download the Dilling Formula HERE
3. calculate the dosage of medicine for infants and children based on the young formula
This formula is often used for children aged 1 to 8 years.
Example:
a child 5 years old. high fever for 1 day, and has been prescribed by the doctor to get paracetamol with an adult dose of 500 mg, what dose should be given to this baby?
Answer:
so the dose that can be given to children above is 94 mg each time.
Download Young's Formula HERE
4. calculate the dose of drug administration for infants and children based on drug availability.
Example:
Patient children "A" received antibiotic ceftriaxone 250 mg injection via IV, the drug which is available in 1 vial of ceftriaxone containing 1 gram = 1000 mg administered with 10cc distilled water. how much is given?
Answer:
so the dose of the drug given is 2.5 cc.
Download the formula based on drug availability ( HERE )
5. calculate the dose of drug administration for infants and children based on body weight
For this one formula it is very easy to use with a note that the drug to be given is the dosage on the package.
Here's the formula:
Da = Drug Dosage X Body Weight
Example:
It is known that the therapeutic dose for paracetamol is 10 mg / kgBW / time, so for children aged 3 years with a body weight of 14 kg, a dose of 14 x 10 mg = 140 mg can be given per time.
thus the child can be given a drug as much as 140 mg each time.
well for the last method is rather easy isn't it. but it must be remembered that this last formula can be used if there is a dosage / body weight (Kg) in the package.
Download the formula based on weight HERE
That is the article on "How to calculate the dose of medicine for babies and children", please choose the method that according to friends is the easiest. and still according to the body weight and age of the infant or children who will be given the drug. I hope this article is useful for my colleagues. Thank you.
