The OTC industry is discontinuing infant acetaminophen/tylenol because of of too many infants dying from liver failure due to overdose. Overdosing is very easy when using the highly concentrated infant tylenol, so manufactures are now starting to only use children's tylenol, with recommended doses for infants.
Here are two articles that are helpful, if you haven't heard. This one and this one.
I was always very careful giving the concentrated tylenol to my girls because while in the NICU the nurses stressed about how children so easily can die from overdose. I always thought the dropper that comes with the bottle was completely unreliable and I never gave the tylenol through that dropper. Instead I always used a real 1 mL syringe so that I could accurately give them the correct dose, 0.4 mL or 0.8 mL. You can get the mL droppers at the local pharmacy or doctors office.
There's a great chart that my doctor gave us and it now hangs on our "family household board" here in the kitchen, so we have no confusion! Ask your doctor next time for one, it's great and has tylenol on one side and motrin on the other, so it's a great handy tool.
So now, instead of the infant tylenol, these are the recommended doses for children's tylenol when being used on infants (but I also included the concentrated drops dosing, just incase you still have some at home, which we do too!):
Concentrated Infant Tylenol Drops:
Weight: 6-11 lbs
Age: 0-3 mos
Correct Dose: 0.4 mL
Weight: 12-17 lbs
Age: 4-11 mos
Correct Dose: 0.8 mL
Weight: 18-23 lbs
Age: 12-23 mos
Correct Dose: 1.2 mL (0.4 mL + 0.8 mL)
Children's Tylenol:
Weight: 6-11 lbs
Age: 0-3 mos
Correct Dose: 1.25 mL
Weight: 12-17 lbs
Age: 4-11 mos
Correct Dose: 2.5 mL
Weight: 18-23 lbs
Age: 12-23 mos
Correct Dose: 3.75 mL
Every four hours, as needed, but do not exceed more than 5 doses in 24 hours. Always read instructions before use.
This freaks me out! Of course this is what we have and up until last week Parker had only had about 4-5 doses, maybe. Last week between shots and teething she was getting 2-3 doses a day, for 3-4 days! I never give her more than 0.4 mL though even at 17 lbs, because I always want to air on the side of caution, but seriously I wish this stuff was safer. It just scares me so I really try not to give it to her...
ReplyDeleteWow this is very scary! Thank you so much for posting!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!!
ReplyDelete