Research shows using a spoon from the kitchen drawer to give your children medicine is potentially harmful

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, my Mom would open the kitchen drawer and pull out a teaspoon and pour my medicine, whatever it was, into and then right into my mouth. Well now a new study warns that our Moms were wrong and that children could be getting dangerous overdoses and we should be measuring much more carefully.

All spoons are not created equal

The researchers actually took a look at 71 kitchen teaspoons and 49 tablespoons and found that the actually measuring capacity was very different. Enough so that measurements of medication would not be delivering the amount prescribed, but could be under or over the recommended dose.

The study included 25 women ages 24-84, mothers and grandmothers. It was also determined that most homes have between two and six different teaspoons. The variation was not just between households but also within the same house.

The researchers also wanted to know how exact medication dispensing would be if a women gave medication with a calibrated medicine spoon and found that only one in five women dispensed the proper dose.

It takes practice to properly dose with liquid medication

What this is actually telling us is that parents need to be educated as to the importance of exact dosing and they should only be using a calibrated medicine syringes rather than calibrated spoons because it is much more exact and children have a tendency to push the spoon away or spill it and thus not getting the accurate dose. Syringes are often easier to use.

Most pharmacies have calibrated syringes at very little cost. They are easier to use and will give parents piece of mind that they are accurately providing their child with the correct dose.

You can get calibrated syringes at most pharmacies and they are much easier to use

And just as an aside, adults should not use kitchen utensils to dose themselves, either. They are not accurate, although less dangerous for an adult, it is still not wise to take the wrong dose of medication.

It is believed that parents have been using kitchen teaspoons and tablespoons for the simple reason of convenience, they are always available and easy to grab. But the fact of the matter is they are not accurate. And dosing your child or yourself could prove to not be beneficial at the very least and harmful in the worse case scenario.

Especially harmful is misdosing antibiotics. This can weaken the immune system and cause the child to develop resistance to antibiotics. 

Medicine is medical treatment, measure carefully

So the bottom line is, medicine is indeed medical treatment, for a child or adult and the dose should be carefully measured and delivered. Be accurate for the both of you.

Source:

WebMD