Question

Just as you are recovering, your child falls ill. in your medication dosages, so you hurriedly scan the Internet to make sure that what the doctor is giving your child is safe. The doctor writes the order for the following: You know that there have been mistakes 150 mg of an antibiotic to be given every 6 hours Your child weighs 30 lb. Your research indicates that 20-40 mg/kg/day is the recommended dosage. Is this prescription safe for your child? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Given dose (i.e 600 mg) lies outside the recommended range of 271.8-543.6 mg/day that too on the higher side

Hence, the prescription is not safe.

Explanation:

Given:

Weight of medicine given per interval = 150 mg

time interval = 6 hours

thus, number of intervals per day =
`\frac{\textup{24}}{\textup{6}}` = 4

therefore,

the total dose of medicine provided per day = 4 × 150 = 600 mg

Now,

Recommended dosage = 20-40 mg/kg/day

weight of child = 30 lb

also,

1 lb = 0.453 kg

thus,

weight of child = 30 × 0.453 = 13.59 kg

Therefore, the recommended dose for the child

= ( 20-40 mg/kg/day ) × 13.59

= 271.8-543.6 mg/day

now,

the given dose (i.e 600 mg) lies outside the recommended range of 271.8-543.6 mg/day that too on the higher side

Hence, the prescription is not safe.