antibiotics, course finished when?

[Jokat]

My dd has been on a 14 day course of AB for a throat infection (taken 3 times daily). Tonight, the evening dose completed day no 14, but for some weird reason there is still some AB left in the bottle, maybe two or three doses. Would you give your dc these as well to finish the bottle or would you leave it and stick to the 14 days?

finish the pills.

either she forgot some or you're not taking account of when she started them

Agree finish them all

Ok thanks. It's the liquid stuff, Erythromizin (might have spelt it wrong and she had it via spoon. So maybe I haven't always filled it completely up to the top, and she missed one dose a few days ago. I was a bit worried that it may only be good for 14 days (Amoxycillin, e.g., is only made up as a 7 day course and after the seven days you need to chuck it as it's past its use-by date then), but can't find anything about that on the bottle.

If it's pills you must finish them. If it is liquid it is supplied in complete bottles so you might have more than you need to take.

The antibiotics come into the pharmacy as a powder in the bottle it is supplied to the patient in. The pharmacist adds a measured amount of water to make it up before supply. They cannot make up half a bottle and the NHS pays for full bottles so e.g. if you need 250ml and the antibiotic comes in 100ml packs they might give you 3 bottles rather than measure out 250ml.

Hope that makes sense

Don't think it matters - most likely explanation is that you weren't giving exactly the full dose each time (because a 5 ml medicine spoon only just holds 5ml - to prevent you overdosing, I presume) so there's often some left at the end. My DD has been on antibiotics heaps of times for urine infections and I usually carried on until I'd given her the number of doses prescribed, and there was often a little left.

Whilst you shouldn't generally quit a course of antiboitics part way through I think the precise time the course ends is pretty vague really - sometimes I was given a 5 day course, sometimes 7. It's not that precise. If she's well I'd probably leave it.

Thanks for pointing that out Tranquilidade, hadn't thought to check the amount that's in the bottle vs the amount we needed!
You're right purpleroses, in the past dd was only given a 7 day courseof the same AB for the same problem. And getting all the stuff into her mouth without spilling any when the spoon is laden literally up to the rim is near impossible! We used syringes in the past, but they always have some of the AB stuck to the outside from having dunked them into the bottle so we always ended up slightly short. Anyway, I shall go and look how much there was in the bottle in the first place.

Call a pharmacy in the morning - they should be able to confirm.

Re the syringe, pour med into lid of bottle, syringe from there, pour remainder back in - no wastage.

14 days is a long course, she mustve been pretty ill poor thing, hope she's better now.

good ideas mistletoe.She is well again, thank goodness. this winter alone she's been on ABs for six weeks altogether, always for throat infections :( We've now got an appointment with an ENT specialist to see if she should have her tonsils removed.