7.0
Paediatric Prescribing
Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines, 6th Edition, 2023. Chapter 0, Prescribing Guidelines.
Clinical Description
- 7.1 In these guidelines, paediatric medicine doses are usually given according to body weight and not age, and are therefore expressed as mg/kg etc. The main reason for this is that children of the same age may vary significantly in weight.
Thus, it is safer and more accurate to prescribe drugs according to body weight.
Moreover, this should encourage the good practice of weighing children whenever possible.
- 7.2 When a weighing scale is not available the following equation can be used to estimate the weight of the child: [Age (in years) + 4] x 2
- 7.3 Neonates have delayed hepatic and renal excretion of medicines and unpredictable absorption of oral medication. Therefore, give special consideration when prescribing for children less than 30 days old and especially premature infants.
Check doses against the printed guideline and your clinical judgement before treating a patient. Spotted an error? Report it from the contact links below.
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