Infant And Children's Tylenol Dosing Problem

Our pharmacist answers the latest question regarding dosing problems with Children's & Infant's Tylenol (acetaminophen)

Sep 29, 2017

Roxanne asked

I have a son who is 13 months old and 26 pounds. He is teething and infants Tylenol doesn't seem to be helping-I noticed that the maximum dose is for 18-23 pounds. Children's Tylenol has dosages starting at 24 pounds-but says not to give to children under 2 and instead to use the infant Tylenol. Both boxes say to dose by weight when possible so I'm confuse as to which one to use. Please advise :)

Answer

The dosing recommendations on Tylenol products I agree are confusing! Luckily, there is weight based dosing we can go by for the drug Tylenol (Acetaminophen).

 

The dosage is 10-15 mg/kg per dose every four to six hours. If your son weighs 26 pounds, that converts to 11.79 kilograms.

 

So the appropriate dose for your son is between 118 mg and 177 mg. That is a dosage range and you will be able to safely dose anywhere within that range.

 

Be sure to check the drug information on the back of your product as it will state the concentration of the drug. Depending on the specific product you have, it could either be in an 80mg/0.8 ml concentration or it could be a 160mg/5 ml concentration.

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