Question

A child is prescribed aeetaminophen 160mg by mouth every 6 hours for pain reduction. Acetaminophen is supplied in liquid form at 80mg per 2.5 mL. How many teaspoons will the child receive per dose?

Answer 1

Explanation:

We will use dimensional analysis for this. The conversions happen like this:

`(160mg)/(6hrs)*(2.5mL)/(80mg)*(.202884136tsp)/(1mL)` so the label of mg cancels out and so does the label mL, leaving us with tsp per 6 hours, which is the dose in tsp instead of mg.

The answer is found by multiplying everything in the top straight across to get 81.1536544, and then dividing that by the product of 6 and 80:

.169 tsp/6hrs. That's why it's measures in mg instead of tsp: it's difficult to measure out .169 tsp and much easier to measure out 160mg with a dropper.