Question

A mother is to give her child 5 ccs of medicine every 6 hours. Unfortunately, she lost the syringe provided with the liquid medicine. She calls your clinic for help.

1. How much medicine in teaspoons can you instruct her to give to the child per dose?

2. How much medicine in teaspoons would the child receive per day?

Answer 1

1. 1 tsp

2. 4 tsp

Step-by-step explanation:

Conversion factors:

1tsp = 4.929 cc

24 hr = 1 day

1.

55 cc x 1 tsp/ 4.929 cc = 1.014 tsp

The mother should give her child 1 tsp medicine per dose.

2.

Amount of medicine received every 6 hr = 5 cc

5cc/ 6 hr x 24 hr/ 1 day = 20 cc

20 cc x 1 tsp/ 4.929 cc = 4.05 tsp

The child would receive 4 tsp medicine per day

Answer 2

1. The conversion from teaspoons to CCs is 4.92. So, the 5 cc dose will equal roughly a teaspoon (within 2% error, which is well within the precision of a person filling a syringe anyhow).
2. Since the child is to receive 5 ccs of medicine every 6 hours, and 5 ccs is roughly equal to a teaspoon, the child should receive 4 teaspoons of medicine per 24-hour period.