Is it possible for liquid antibiotics to be made up too strong?

[pinkamethyst]

Hi,

My DS has been prescribed a liquid antibiotic. He’s been prescribed the same one multiple times before, and previously it has always been the same consistency. This time it’s really thick and takes a while to come out onto the spoon; usually I have to be careful that it doesn’t come out too quickly. There were still chunks of power in the liquid when we got it but we’ve removed those by shaking the bottle.

He’s been taking it for a day and his bowel movements have increased significantly, normally this doesn’t happen.

Does anyone know how liquid antibiotics are made up? Does the pharmacist spoon power from another container into the bottle and mix with water (so there’s room for error), or do the bottles come with a set amount of the antibiotic powder in them? The amount of liquid in the bottle looks the same as usual, so I don’t think it’s that there is less water in there.

My DS also says it tastes different - he normally hates it but this time he says it’s really nice. The bottle is definitely labelled as the correct antibiotic. Thanks for any insight.

The powder is already in the bottle, then water is added to it.
If you have any concerns, go back to the pharmacy where the medicine was dispensed.

The bottles come with the powder already in them - the pharmacist just adds water. If it tastes nicer it could just be that it’s a different brand maybe?

It could just be a different brand.

Thanks very much all - that’s very reassuring.

That could be it - I’ve just looked and the label is pink, whereas I think usually it’s brown and orange (from memory - I could be wrong). It’s erythromycin. I hadn’t considered there could be different brands!

Have you checked the strength on the bottle against the label?

Yes, just now. 250mg on both bottle and label.

And it looks about the right amount in the bottle?

You can always go back to the chemist with your concerns

Yes. That’s what I was considering, but I didn’t want to do that if there was a logical reason for it and if there was no chance it could be a dosage error. It sounds like it could be a different brand (I didn’t realise there were different brands of the same antibiotic).