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The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending all liquid medicine for children be measured in milliliters instead of the traditional teaspoons and tablespoons.
"Metric dosing is the most precise way to dose medications and prevent overdoses," said Dr. Ian Paul, lead author of a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Accidental medication overdoses send more than 70,000 children to U.S. emergency rooms each year, according to background information with the statement, which is published online March 30 in the journal Pediatrics.
Using only milliliters "eliminates at least some significant sources of dosing confusion and errors," he added.
Currently, some over-the-counter medications include metric dosing instructions along with a measuring device marked in teaspoons, the academy noted.
Previous research has found that parents who use only milliliters when giving kids medicine make fewer errors than parents who use teaspoons or tablespoons, the statement said.
NASA uses metric units, although Lockheed Martin used pound force seconds instead of newton seconds in calculations with the Mars Climate Orbiter, causing it to burn up in the Martian atmosphere.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by theluggage on Tuesday March 31 2015, @06:04PM
The problem is not in using non-metric units. The problem is in using different units in the description and the provided measurement device:
True, but metric makes it easier to pick one unit that lets you use integers for everything, and stick to it.
Especially if they combined it with a warning to use nothing else but the supplied measurement device.
Unfortunately, our "forget logic - cover your ass" society has done a brilliant job of crying wolf and training people to ignore warnings.
Another solution would be to simply require that instructions and supplied measurement device use the same units.
Or, a solution that might actually work, is to stop worrying, embrace the idiocracy, and package liquid medicines for children in one-dose squeezy capsules that you snap off the tip and squirt into their mouth (made from something that dissolves in the gut).