Giving your child the right dose of medication?

How confident are you when giving your child a dose of over-the-counter medication? Most parents would say they are careful to read the label, give the right dose, choose the right medication, and take every precaution to avoid an overdose. Yet a recent study from Australia, presented at the International Pharmaceutical Federation conference last month, shows that getting the dose wrong, or medicating inappropriately, is all too common. (See Medicine time for kids? Ditch the kitchen spoon.)

Alarmingly, 61 percent of adults taking part in the study would have given an incorrect dose of medicine (although only 17 percent gave an overdose). Some would give medication to bring down a fever without actually checking the child's temperature first. One in four were unable to correctly measure the dose they'd intended to give.

The researchers said that some parents were under the impression that over-the-counter medicines could not cause harm at any dose. Yet medications such as acetaminophen (the most commonly used drug in the study) can cause fatal liver damage in overdose.

Learn more in the full Health blog post.