Timing of antibiotics doses?

[flutterworc]

DS (4) has been prescribed Phenoxymeythalpenicillin for a throat infection. He has to have four doses evenly spaced through the day, at least one hour before and two hours after food. I'm having GCSE Maths exam flashbacks...

How do people space these out? And what do I do tomorrow when he's at school? Do I need to use a scientific calculator and divide it by pi...?

I think to help you out we need to know when your son generally eats (approx times).

Regarding school you take it in and sign a form to say they can administer the drugs and tell them what time

IME of a 4yo with tonsillitis you'll need to wake him up for at least one of them, and he'll need to miss out on the morning fruit at school. But if you give mealtimes I'm sure the hive mind can work it out.

Eugh it's a nightmare. Ask the dr to prescribe amoxicillin instead. There is no evidence that pen v works any better it's just cheaper (slightly!). Plus it tastes vile.

I'd do 7am, 11am (school does), pick up time (3.30?) and 7pm. That's assuming he eats lunch at 12ish and supper at 5pm. If doesn't have to be exactly even iirc, just not doses squashed together.

YY the pen V is DISGUSTING! According to DD.

@Gunpowder - those timings are almost spot on - breakfast at 8, lunch 12 and tea at 5.30.

I used to be so good at this - before he had his tonsils out, he was on it every other week and I was at home with him, so we had it down pat! And it's his first ever school picture day tomorrow...

gunpowders sorted it

Is it the one that has to go in the fridge? We supplied a mini cool bag and ice pack to keep the medicine cool, though it turned out the lovely head of EYFS was happy to put it in the EYFS staff fridge. We did forgot it one day, though, luckily remembered before the school shut for the night and dashed back for it.

I've always given the dose every 6 hours, I use the calpol syringe at night it makes it's easier! I usually give at 6,12,6 then last dose at midnight. Means having a late dinner but I was told in hospital that it's important to give antibiotics properly so depending on how many doses every 6/8 hours. In fairness prior to my daughter having pneumonia I had always given throughout the day.

We were prescribed this once for 3yo ds when he had suspected tonsillitis and it was a nightmare! Not so much working out the timings, but fitting any food in the relatively short windows when we were really struggling to get any food/drink into him at all! It was also so disgusting we had to literally pin him down to get it into him. I took him back to GP a few days later when he still wasn't improving, and apparently there are alternatives that you can give with food. (He was admitted to hospital after that visit with pneumonia so we never found out if they were any good, but the amoxicillin he got in hospital also cleared up his throat).

That's interesting happymum, when we were in hospital with pneumonia they didn't give any doses through the night (once off IV anyway), and spread them out through the day. They were actually more relaxed with the timings than we would be at home to tie in with their normal rounds I think, so it would be more like 8, 12, 8! Funny how the medics often contradict each other (we saw a fair bit of that too during our week long stay).

I'm a paeds nurse and 4X day oral meds we give at 8 12 4 & 8 don't worry too much about the food thing to be honest just important to get the meds in and kept down often given Before eating but depends on when we get to a patient on the drug round,
Pen v is particularly vile so hope your wee one takes it ok but don't stress too much about timings as long as there is 4 hours between doses

Thanks all - school were great and we followed @Gunpowder's timings - all was well!

@Kaykey - I'm very grateful for that - he's a big boy and very active, so trying to delay his after-school apple was akin to negotiating with a lunatic!

Oh well done. Hope he gets better quickly. Throat infections are such misery for them.

If you can get difflam spray it's fab tastes a bit yuck but numbs the throat if it's sore
Hope he's on the mend soon xx