Don’t give children under five adult medicines, paediatricians tell parents

Citing their immature livers, kidneys and smaller body size, paediatricians have urged parents to stop giving children, especially those under five, adult medicines, warning that the practice could lead to severe organ damage.

The child health experts also warned against giving children medications that were not prescribed by a doctor, including the common practice of administering half of an adult dose when a child falls ill.

They stressed that children are not simply “small adults” and are often more sensitive to medication side effects, particularly those that cause drowsiness.

The paediatricians advised parents to consider their children’s age and developmental stage when determining the most appropriate medication and to exercise caution before giving them any adult medicine.

According to the experts, drugs should only be administered to children when prescribed by qualified healthcare professionals, warning that inappropriate medication use can cause serious harm.

In an exclusive interview with PUNCH HealthWise, a Professor of Paediatrics at the Department of Paediatrics, College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Prof. Olugbenga Mokuolu, said it has become imperative to warn parents against the practice because of its potentially harmful consequences.

Mokuolu, who is also a Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, said reducing an adult dose by half for a child is a wrong practice that should be discouraged, even though it appears to be common in Nigeria.

He said, “It is not good practice to give children half of an adult dose of any medication.

“The way we calculate the dose of a drug for a child is different from how adult doses are calculated. It is not simply a matter of reducing the adult dose.

“When prescribing medicines for children, we relate the dose to the child’s body size. That is the critical issue.

“Sometimes, the dose a child requires may even be as high as the dose an adult takes. It depends on the calculation because every child is different.

“That is why we discourage this practice of using adult dosages for children.”

Mokuolu said parents should never take drug dosing for granted and should always seek guidance from healthcare professionals when administering medicines to children.

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He explained that age is an important factor in determining the appropriate drug dosage.

“For instance, a child can be a newborn or someone up to 14 years old. So, which dose are you going to use if you simply reduce the adult dose? The age range that constitutes childhood is very wide. Therefore, parents should always be guided by healthcare workers on the correct dosage.

“They should not assume that it will be half of an adult dose. There is no universal ‘half adult dose.’ In some cases, it may be too much; in others, it may be too little. The bottom line is that parents should be properly guided,” he said.

The researcher further advised parents to seek appropriate medical care whenever their children are ill instead of resorting to self-medication, noting that community health workers can also provide guidance on the safe administration of medicines.

He said, “We recommend that parents take their children to the hospital rather than buy a drug that worked for Child A and give it to Child B. We want to discourage all these practices.”

Also, writing in Harvard Health Publishing, a primary care pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Claire McCarthy, advised parents to ensure they fully understand medication instructions before giving medicines to their children.

The paediatrician noted that most medication errors made by parents involve overdosing, with 21 per cent giving more than twice the recommended dose.

“It is truly scary. People make mistakes in two ways: either by measuring the medicine incorrectly or by misunderstanding the instructions. That is completely understandable, but the consequences can be dangerous,” she said.

Another paediatrician, Dr. Rasheedat Ibraheem, urged parents who give cough and cold medicines to children under five to stop, warning that such medications can be harmful.

Ibraheem, a Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, said cough medicines are generally not suitable for treating cough in children under five because they can cause adverse effects.

She explained that young children are unable to effectively cough up or spit out phlegm, adding that they should not routinely be given cough medicines because many do not produce sputum when they cough. Sputum is the mucus coughed up from the lower airways.

Ibraheem noted that coughing in children may be a sign of a chest infection and urged parents to avoid self-medication and always seek medical evaluation to determine the cause.

“Another disadvantage of giving children cough syrup is that when a child is coughing, it may be due to a chest infection such as pneumonia.

“If parents give the child a cough suppressant, they may get the false impression that the child’s condition has improved, whereas the infection is still present.

“What the child may actually need is antibiotics to treat the infection.

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“So, by giving cough suppressants, you are not treating the underlying condition; instead, you may be worsening the child’s condition,” she said.

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