paracetamol suspension dosage guideline for kids

Giving paracetamol suspension dosage is a highly popular and effective medicine for kid’s fever. And a healthcare govt agency “Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)”, of Govt of UK Issued a new, age wise guidance with exact doses of liquid paracetamol medicines to be given to children. This is due to new findings in research made by medical experts of the agency. The guidelines categorized dosage into seven different age criteria covering children ageing from 3 months to 12 years.

The new guidelines, issued by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will be printed on medicine instructions and labels by the year end. The MHRA says that parents and nurses should follow the dosing instructions of the medicine and also the old 3 dosing guidelines can also be followed as per treating doctors’ opinion by considering on spot child safety.

The doses have been updated with more precise on kids’ health benefit terms of how much paracetamol should be given to children of different ages. There are no safety concerns attached with newly instructed doses.

The agency also says that despite the changes in dosing orders, liquid paracetamol will remain a safe and effective medicine to treat kids’ fever and pain. They also stress in their statement that parents should not worry about the doses they had given in the past to their kids of liquid paracetamol. and also stated that old dosing instructions can also be used without any harm to child health.

Liquid Paracetamol what are the doses for kids?

Traditional 3 paracetamol suspension Doses for children’s liquid paracetamol were used particularly divided in three age groups:

• 3 months to under 1 year: 2.5ml of infant paracetamol suspension, given four times in a day
• 1 year to under 6 years: 5 to 10ml of infant paracetamol suspension, given four times in a day
• 6 years to 12 years: 5 to 10ml of paracetamol six-plus suspension, given four times in a day

However, these old dosage recommendations are now being replaced by MHRA with new doses that classify children into seven more precisely defined age groups as below:

• 3 months to 6 months: 2.5ml of infant paracetamol suspension, given four times a day
• 6 months to 24 months: 5ml of infant paracetamol suspension, given four times a day
• 2 years to 4 years: 7.5ml of infant paracetamol suspension, given four times a day
• 4 years to 6 years: 10ml of infant paracetamol suspension, given four times a day
• 6 years to 8 years: 5ml of paracetamol six-plus suspension, given four times a day
• 8 years to 10 years: 7.5ml of paracetamol six-plus suspension, given four times a day
• 10 years to 12 years: 10ml of paracetamol six-plus suspension, given four times a day

Currently there are traditional three levels of paracetamol suspension dosage can be still used by parents and nurses, but, although the new dosing is more exact age wise divided it is easy to understand the dosing for parents or nurses to follow.

Have there any changes made in paracetamol medicine by the manufacturer?

No, there are no changes in the original formula including the effectivity of ingredients of the medicines:

• infant paracetamol suspension contains 120mg of paracetamol for every 5ml of suspension.
• paracetamol for six plus kids’ suspension contains 240/250mg of paracetamol for every 5ml of suspension.

The recommended age ranges for infant and six-plus formulas remain unchanged, meaning children under six years old should still be given infant paracetamol suspension and children aged six and above should still take six-plus formulations.

Wha is the reason MHRA suggested Changes in the dosing of paracetamol?

The MHRA says that the updated dosage guidelines are designed to ensure that children get the most effective amount of paracetamol to cure early. but there are no specific guidelines on discontinue old dosing. new dosing is suggested according to the new research findings confirmed by MHRA authority.

But reason of changing the dosage will be finally decided by the expert recommended of doctor through his diagnose and by also considering these new recommendations for more effectivity of medicine.

While paracetamol dosing given at the hospitals and healthcare establishments is based on the child’s weight and health situation diagnosed by expert doctors. Whereas the MHRA dosage advice for paracetamol given at home is based on the child’s age.

Where can I find the new dosing instructions of MHRA on any of my medicine?

As per MHRA Rules manufacturers of medicines usually print’s the dosage guidelines of medicine on the medicine packaging / container and labels, but if not found such any then contact your doctor or pharmacist to know the correct dosing of the medicine and give it accordingly to children’s. 

How can I make sure my doses are accurate?

Giving accurate dosage to kids will be helping to get effective results from the medicine, and the new guidelines not only update dosing recommendations, but also encourage parents and child caretakers to use the accurate dosing cups / spoons to ensure the correct amount of suspension dosage for better benefits to children.

The MHRA guides to parents and childcare takers to always use the correct dosing tools such as dosing cups/ dosing spoons & dosing syringes like equipment’s instead of regular spoon. This will help to estimate the correct amount of medicine. MHRA also recommended well shaking the bottle before giving any medicinal dose to kids including paracetamol so the content of the medicine should be evenly distributed.

Kindly refer below MHRA Official dosing guideline which supports our above article.

• MHRA press release: Paracetamol: updated dosing for children to be introduced – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Last but not least / Avoid buying OTC Medicines for kids, given any medicine to kids only after exert consultation as kids are with low immunity and can be sensible to any unknown medicinal chemicals.

We hope above information will help you in giving correct paracetamol suspension dosage for the safe dosing of liquid paracetamol to your kids.

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