Parents give children too many medications

Parents give children too many medications.

(30.08.2010) Coughing, runny nose, fever - it's not just colds that often make parents frivolously addicted to over-the-counter drugs. Australian researchers from the University of Sydney have now found in a study that parents often endanger their child's health by administering over-the-counter medicines, even though they actually want to protect their children.

The research team around Dr. In the study, Rebekah Moles presented 53 mothers, seven fathers and 37 daycare workers with different scenarios to decide whether to treat a 2- to 5-year-old child with medication. If they decide to administer a drug, subjects should also indicate the dosage they would use to treat the child. The scientists have now announced their findings at the meeting of the International Pharmaceutical Association in Lisbon.

Thus, the decision as to whether or not to administer medication as well as the dosage in some cases is inadequate. So z. For example, 55 percent opted for drug treatment even though the child had a temperature below 38 degrees, and at 44 percent, nearly half of the participants subsequently chose an incorrect dosage. Part of the subjects (15 percent) immediately started administering medication without first measuring the temperature. In addition, 61 percent of parents and employees would give the children paracetamol (a painkiller with antipyretic effect), even if the little ones only a little cough or sniff. Of particular concern, according to Dr. Rebekah Moles that many subjects considered non-prescription drugs less dangerous than the prescription drugs. So she also explains that z. For example, in the Australian state of New South Wales, the poison dispensary in just under one in two of the 119,000 calls received in 2008 involved accidental drug overdosage in children.

Of the affected children, 15 percent had to be taken to the hospital, the results of the study continue. It is also problematic in this connection that a large part of the preparations is freely accessible on the Internet and can be administered without medical supervision. In addition, the use of non-prescription drugs is often concealed when talking with the doctor, so that if necessary side effect can occur with additionally prescribed funds. The results of the study show how negligent the handling of over-the-counter medicines is in modern societies. Therefore, Dr. Moles also invited the meeting of the International Pharmaceutical Association to encourage all parents to consider possible overdoses in over-the-counter and over-the-counter medicines and to consult a doctor if in doubt. (Fp)

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