Pediatric Dose Calculations

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A child weighs 52 lbs. The child has a fever and the doctor orders Tylenol. The safe dose range of this medication is 10-15 mg/kg every 6 hours. The label reads 160mg/5ml.

What is the maximum per day?

What is the maximum per dose?

How many ml per max dose?

Do I multiply by the safe dose range by weight in kg and then multiply by 4 since it is very 6 hours to get the max dose per day?

thank you.

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A child weighs 52 lbs. The child has a fever and the doctor orders Tylenol. The safe dose range of this medication is 10-15 mg/kg every 6 hours. The label reads 160mg/5ml.

What is the maximum per day?

What is the maximum per dose?

How many ml per max dose?

Do I multiply by the safe dose range by weight in kg and then multiply by 4 since it is very 6 hours to get the max dose per day?

thank you.

If you do this, you will determine the max mgs per day.

Your question is max DOSE per day.

The DOSE is in mls not mgs.

You will need to figure out how many mls to give to get the max mgs per day.

The label tells you that there are 160mg in 5 ml.

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Thank you for the hasty response! So to answer the question this was my math: 52/2.2= 23.6kg (rounded down to nearest tenth cuz that's what test said to do). Then I did: 23.6kg*15mg=354mg to get max safe dose in mg. Then: 354mg*4doses= 1416mg/d since QID. To get mL I did this: 354mg/160mg*5mL= 11mL.

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Thank you for the hasty response! So to answer the question this was my math: 52/2.2= 23.6kg (rounded down to nearest tenth cuz that's what test said to do). Then I did: 23.6kg*15mg=354mg to get max safe dose in mg. Then: 354mg*4doses= 1416mg/d since QID. To get mL I did this: 354mg/160mg*5mL= 11mL.

Yes. That gives you the max safe dose every 6 hours.

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I reread your questions. I think the 1st 2 are asking you for the answer in mgs. The last question is asking for mls.

I hope you paraphrased the questions to make posting easier and that they are worded better .

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I didn't paraphrase the question. It was worded like this on our test. There were a few students who interpreted the question differently and that made me doubt my math. So I made an account here because I couldn't wait for clarification lol. The first two questions wanted dosages in mg and the last asked in mL. Again thank you so much for helping me work it out!

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I didn't paraphrase the question. It was worded like this on our test. There were a few students who interpreted the question differently and that made me doubt my math. So I made an account here because I couldn't wait for clarification lol. The first two questions wanted dosages in mg and the last asked in mL. Again thank you so much for helping me work it out!

You're welcome! It was fun. :)

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Specializes in Short Term/Skilled.
A child weighs 52 lbs. The child has a fever and the doctor orders Tylenol. The safe dose range of this medication is 10-15 mg/kg every 6 hours. The label reads 160mg/5ml.

What is the maximum per day?

What is the maximum per dose?

How many ml per max dose?

Do I multiply by the safe dose range by weight in kg and then multiply by 4 since it is very 6 hours to get the max dose per day?

thank you.

So you first need to know the weight in kg. (Kg=lbs/2.2)

Then you find the low dose and the high dose by multiplying each by the pts weight in kg

Yes, you would take the dose per 6 hours and multiply it by 4 to get the total daily dose for each range

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

When they ask you dosage, they almost definitely mean in milligrams (mg) (or whatever unit the particular medication is measured in). Milliliters (mL) is the volume...it is not the dose.

This is important because it can cause confusion and lead to the patient getting too much or too little medication. Tylenol is a bad example of this because of the concentration, but some sedatives and pain medications often come in a concentration of 2 ml/ml.

If the doctor wrote an order for 2 ml of morphine, I would wonder if she really meant 2 ml (4mg), or if she meant 2 mg and just wrote it wrong. It is unconventional to write the volume instead of the dosage.

In situations where another nurse is helping me prepare or give medications (sometimes in an urgent situation this has to happen), I will tell them something like "This is 4 mg of lorazepam in 2 ml." If I just said "Here is 2 of lorazepam"....they wouldn't know if I meant 2mg or 2ml (which is 1mg).

Just wanted to add my thoughts. Good luck!

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