If not, what would the maximum safe dosage be every 6 hours?

Question

150 mg of an antibiotic to be given every 6 hours. Your child weighs 30 lb. Your
research indicates that 20 – 40 mg/kg/day is the recommended dosage. Is this
prescription safe for your child? If not, what would the maximum safe dosage be
every 6 hours?

Answer 1

Hi Jacob

 

Let start analyzing what your research indicates.

 

The recommended dosage is 20 - 40 mg/kg  at day (24 hrs.). Then, we have a minimum dosage of 20 mg/kg, and a maximum dosage of 40 mg/kg.

 

Because we have two different units of weight (kg. vs. lb), we have to convert one of them into the other, to get a common weight unit. For convenience, I rather prefer to convert lb. into kg. As a result, the child weight is

 

30 lb * (kg/2.20 lb) = 13.6 kg

 

Minimum daily recommended dosage:  (20  mg/kg)* 13.6 kg = 272 mg

 

Maximum daily recommended dosage:  (40  mg/kg)* 13.6 kg = 544 mg

 

 

The prescription is 150 mg every 6 hours. Then, at a daily basis, the prescription is (150 mg)*4 = 600 mg per day.

 

This prescription is higher than the maximum daily dosage indicated by your research. Then, this prescription is unsafe for this child.

 

The maximum safe dosage every 6 hours is 544 mg/4 = 136 mg every 6 hours.

 

I hope it helped you. Good luck with your grades.