Pediatric doctors need to calculate the doses of every drug carefully. It is labor-intensive parts of pediatric medicine. It is tough enough remember all those drugs doses. Incorrect dosing in frequency and amount could result in harm rather than helping. Pediatric dose calculator app can be very useful in saving time. But you must have the basic idea behind the calculations done by the apps.
- Birth to 1 year of age has greater percentage of body water
- Age 1 to 12 years metabolizes drugs more readily than adults
There may be an overdose, toxic reactions, and even death for incorrect medication dosing. Because the children’s have immature physiological processes such as absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion.
Remember-There is no standard dose. Safe Pediatric doses are calculated by Body weight and Body surface area. So knowing the weight is extremely important. The usual unit for weight is Kg. There is also Unit named by “Pound”. So the knowing the interrelation is quite necessary.
Update: Smart Pedi Best Android App for Pediatric Emergency Dosing Guideline
1 kg = 2.2 lb (Pound)
The doses can be written in several ways. It may be In a daily total to be divided into equal doses as for example 50mg/kg/day equally divided in three doses or Per dose like 30mg/kg TID.
All pediatric dosages have a recommended range in the drug guide. Like for Ceftriaxone it is 50-100mg/kg/day. These ranges are typically based on a 24-hour total amount of a dosage in mg, mcg, gm etc.
How to Calculate the Liquid or Syrup?
Desired Dose X quantity in ml divided by Dose on hand = volume to be administered
As for example, syrup contains 250/5ml. The order is 75mg. So the volume to be administered is 75*5/250= 1.5 ml.
Amoxicillin Dose for Children:
Amoxicillin is a penicillin group of drug good against streptococcal pharyngitis, pneumonia, and other Gram-Positive positive bacteria. Pediatric dose is 20-50mg/kg/day per oral divided into 3 doses. 50-100mg/kg/day in 3 divided doses for IM, IV Injections.
Available preparations are 250mg, 500mg cap, 125mg/5ml syrup and DS 250mg/5ml, 125mg/1.25ml oral drop, 250, 500mg IV/IM vial. A 10 Kg child will need 20*50=1000mg per day. Which if we divide into 3 doses, the rate is 333 mg per dose. So the dose will be 333*5/250=6.6 ml per dose.
This complex calculation can be solved by these pediatric dose calculator app. Note, this is only for Doctors and health care providers. I will not bear any responsibilities for misuse of any app or will not take any reponsibilities for the misuse of the information provided here.
Download mDose For Easy Pediatric Doses Calculation
Now here is mDose. It is an Android app developed by Sanofi Aventis Bangladesh.
This application allows qualified physicians (Health Care Professionals) to calculate the pediatric drug doses by using only the age & body weight of the child. The intention of this application is to assist qualified physicians (Health Care Professionals) to calculate the pediatric doses of the commonly used drugs in Bangladesh. Drugs which are commonly used in pediatrics are included in this application. Most of the medications are available in Bangladesh, but some medications have also been included which have essential indications. Most of the contents have been taken from British National Formulary (BNF) for children, 2012 edition and locally approved by DGDA (Directorate General of Drug Administration) Bangladesh. Use of this application is limited to Bangladesh only.
Download mDose
Kids Drug Dosage Calc – PaedRx
It is another app that I have found on Google Play Store. To increase safety and operation efficiency FREE Drug Dosage calculator for your Android phone – PaedRx is created. This is an Android App which helps doctors, Medical students, nurses and Pharmacists to calculate and administer right dosage to children. More specifically this is helpful for Pediatricians. This app also has brief drug profile for most of the meds. The best part of it this App is 100% free. Also, did we say this app doesn’t have any advertisement 🙂 smile
Download Kids Drug Dosage Calc – PaedRx
Child Dose
The simple calculator of drug doses for physicians and parents.
Input variables:
* Amount of active substance in drug
* Expected saturation of drug per kilogram of patient’s body
* Patient’s weight
Download Child Dose
Infinite Dose Calculator
Infinite Dose is a complete drug dosage calculator with a super easy method to calculate any difficult dose within 2 seconds (even if it’s in mcg/kg/min). You do not need to remember the dose or any calculation method; Infinite dose will do all the hard work.
There is a free and premium version of Infinite Dose Calculator. The App contains 17 Adult ICU drugs and 17 Pediatric Drugs sample for free. Premium version will add 62 and 99 drugs respectively. It has some new features. You can also add drugs notes with rich text editor. For Bangladeshi users, must check the concentration of the calculated drug is teh same as the one available in Bangladesh.
Thanks for the articles. I known it may be a little old article , but I would like to add this app to the list (Infinite Dose)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moaness.InfiniteDose.free
now easyCalculate Pediatric Dose thanks.