Question

A 30-year-old mother with two children visits the health care center with her 8-month-old infant, who has a slight fever. Upon assessment, the woman tells the nurse that she had given her infant a very small portion of medication that was prescribed for her 4-year-old son some days back when he had a fever.

What was the woman’s mistake?

What additional information should the nurse give the woman about drug usage and children?

Answer 1

Around 60,000 kids of less than 4 years of age are brought to the emergency care unit every year because of unsupervised medications. and 70% of them are the cases of children less than 2 years of age.

What was the woman’s mistake?

The woman's mistake was that she had given her 8-months old infant the medication which was prescribed for her 4-year-old son without any prescription by the physician.

What additional information should the nurse give the woman about drug usage and children?

Kids get a fever from time to time and sometimes its a sign of immunity against the infection.

The nurse would give the woman the following information about drug usage and children -

• children get a fever from different reasons also - like overdressing in infants can make them over bundled and they won't be able to regulate their body temperature.
• kids sometimes also get a fever after immunization or teething and in that case, they do not need medications.
• do not give medication to the child without any prescription or supervision.
• do not save antibiotics for later use.
• do not give medications to children that are packed for adults unless prescribed by the health care professional.
• sometimes infants with age more than 6 months do not need medicines unless they feel uncomfortable with fever.
• never give your child Aspirin unless prescribed because it can cause Reye’s syndrome.