Do they make kid's medicine up?

[Knitsewthread]

I'm sleep deprived after dealing with an I'll child for what feels like months and I feel like my anxiety is in override. So I know this sounds silly but please reassure me.

I've traipsed round pharmacies trying to find Amoxicillin for my son. Eventually found somewhere that had it - pharmacist said it was his last one. I expected him to just hand it to me but he went off and I saw him pour it into a tube and do some bits then pour into a bottle and shake it. Is this normal??

I thought it was already pre bottled and they just gave it to you or am I just massively naive?!

I've only ever seen it made up in the way you describe.

Hope he's feeling better soon!

In the pharmacy it comes in powder form so the pharmacist has to mix it into a liquid suspension.

No, it's normal for them to do that, I've seen them do it several times. I think they're adding the antibiotic to flavouring/liquid.

Thats normal. It only lasts for 7 days, so for longer courses you have to go back to collect the second bottle.

Yes, antibiotics they make up. It often needs a specific quantity of potable water adding to make the right volume of solution. Always something highly inconvenient like 68mls or 87mls or 73mls.

It means it can stay on the shelf and in date for much longer if it’s supplied to the pharmacy as a dry powder. Once the water is added the clock starts ticking on expiry.

The only one I can think of that doesn’t need making up is Trimethoprim and it’s really bloody expensive.

Ds is on a long term antibiotic and when it was in liquid form we used to get the powder and then add the right amount of water to it, it only has a very limited shelf life when it’s been made up

Water is added to the powder to make the bottle up. Once its in liquid form it has a very short shelf life which is why it doesn't come ready made (I used to work in a pharmacy)

Yes they do with many antibiotic liquids. They come in powder form and need to be made up into liquid by adding water as they only have a short shelf life once in liquid form. Ds2 had a 2 week course of antibiotics a few years ago we were given one bottle made up and the other was powder and we had to add the water to it ourselves and give it a good shake to mix it up.

Yes totally normal (I'm a pharmacist). The majority of liquid antibiotics come as powder that needs reconstituting with water before dispensing.

Once made up they have a short shelf life so this needs to be done whilst you wait. Some are an absolute bugger to mix and require lots of shaking and banging on the dispensing bench to dissolve (if you ever see pharmacy staff doing that they haven't lost the plot or anything 😂).

They make it up if a single course. For some children that are long term antibiotics they will give the powder version and families make it up when needed.

Thank you very much for your reassurances, not sure what I was thinking. Think the seemingly constant illness is making me a bit paranoid and look into everything to make sure it's not causing him any harm

Anyway thanks for the insightful replies, I'd never really consider how medicine came to be so I've learnt something new today at least!

First dose down, he seemed to quite like it