{"id":1042,"date":"2015-02-10T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T20:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2015-01-18T20:12:24","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T19:12:24","slug":"how-do-i-know-what-is-the-correct-dose-to-give-to-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/02\/10\/how-do-i-know-what-is-the-correct-dose-to-give-to-a-child\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I know what is the correct dose to give to a child?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4edf2b66cd95a7f7233a359e1e2a0843\"<\/a>There’s an explosion of stuff about paediatrics and here in the ADC we hope to show you the sparkliest bits. Drugs (good ones, not naughty ones) are very interesting and\u00a0@Pharmaforkids<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is going to explore some of the mysteries of dosing and formulation in a series of articles.<\/p>\n

This may sound simple, and there is one answer that will probably get you through your 1st<\/sup> jobs in paediatrics, RCPCH membership, and probably a significant way into your consultant\/GP practice \u2013 look in the British National Formulary for Children (BNFc).<\/p>\n

But where do formularies get their data from?\u00a0 Does it matter?\u00a0 Well yes, if you ask me, but I am paediatric pharmacologist!<\/p>\n

It all relates to the early phases of drug development \u2013 pharmacokinetics (what the body does to a drug \u2013 basically absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion), and pharmacodynamics (what the drug does to the body), plus pharmacogenomics (how a person\u2019s genetics affect the effectiveness of a medicine \u2013 both how well it works and how toxic it might be) and the environment (do the forget to collect repeat prescriptions)? Do the child\u2019s parents smoke (or if a teenager \u2013do they smoke\/drink) ?<\/p>\n

Then there are the additional challenges that paediatrics faces with regard to working out the right dose:<\/p>\n