Contents

Liquid form: the easiest

Solid form: not recommended for children

Effervescent tablets: be careful with bicarbonate

Depending on your habits or needs, one method of administration may be more appropriate than another. The elderly or children need to consider this point when giving medication.

Liquid medication: the most accessible way

Liquid medications are suitable for everyone.

Most of them are sold with dosing syringes or measuring spoons. Using them only with the supplied product, they are not interchangeable.

Facilitating the administration of the medication

It may be ok to mix it with milk, compote, fruit juice, etc.

However, these must be small amounts so that the entire dose of medication is ingested.

For example, if you dilute the medication in a whole bottle of milk, it is unlikely that your child will drink it all, and it will be impossible to assess the amount of product absorbed.

Hygiene precautions should be observed: clean the neck of the bottle to prevent the sugar from sticking, and note the date of opening.

At the end of the treatment, any opened bottle must be thrown away to avoid reusing it contaminated, whether it contains preservatives or not.

Good to know: you can keep the product in the refrigerator and take it out 30 minutes before use, but it is important to know that depending on the stability of the active ingredient, it may not be advisable to refrigerate the preparation.

With years of experience in evidence-based care, Regions Pharmacy will provide you with skilled guidance based on your specific needs and conditions. Their patients trust them to anticipate any possible side effects and advise them on using their medication for optimal effectiveness best.

Solid form: not recommended for children

They are not recommended for children under 6 years of age due to the risk of misdirection.

To facilitate the administration, you can:

– Cut the tablets into several pieces (half or quarter of a tablet), but you should note that not all medicines are divisible, making the dosage more uncertain. Losses or excesses can be up to 80%, detrimental when the treatment is calculated to the nearest mg.

– Open the capsules and mix them with food or drink, but in some cases, the coating makes it easier for the medication to pass through the stomach, and this technique would make it ineffective.

Children learn to swallow capsules around age 7 or 8. To teach them, you can:

– Have them swallow small pieces of soft food without chewing;

Offer them harder fragments of food that will dissolve if they get stuck in the throat (chocolate, parts of ice cream…).

Effervescent tablets: be careful with bicarbonate

It is important to wait until the end of the effervescence to reduce bicarbonate absorption.

This medication should not be given to children prone to vomiting or renal insufficiency, as sodium and potassium are major contraindications.

Injections and suppositories: to be administered with caution

Injections and suppositories should be used sparingly and administered with care.

Vaccines can not be administered other than by injection, but experts may prefer different modes of administration in all other cases.

It would be best to use suppositories as rarely as possible. It is essential to know that they act more slowly than other administration methods and almost systematically cause rejection in the child. It should only be used as a last resort in cases of chronic vomiting.

Which pharmacy provides the best advice in Miami?

Regions Pharmacy has a team of community pharmacists who are always ready to advise you on your prescriptions and medications. If you require further treatment, they are happy to refer you to the appropriate healthcare professionals.