Paediatricians Issue Urgent Warning: Stop Giving Adult Drugs to Children
Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Ilorin, Prof. Olugbenga Mokuolu said children are not “small adults” and that medicine dosage should be carefully calculated taking into consideration factors like age, body size and developmental stage of the child and not simply reducing an adult dose.
The paediatricians have called on parents and caregivers to refrain from giving adult medicines to children, as this can put children’s lives at risk and compromise children’s right to safe health care.
Child health experts recommend that children should only be given medicines prescribed for them by trained health care professionals. They warned that administering a half dose to children or a medicine intended for another child could lead to serious health issues due to the fact that children’s bodies react differently to medicines than adults.
The experts also advised parents to not treat children with cough and cold remedies, particularly those under five years old, without consulting their doctor. Dr. Rasheedat Ibraheem, Consultant Paediatrician, said that suppressing a child’s cough without proper medical evaluation may lead to the child’s serious illness, like pneumonia, being masked and the timely treatment may be delayed.
Healthcare professionals stress that protecting children is about ensuring they are provided with safe, appropriate and evidence-based medical care. They encourage parents to use their own medicines only when their children are sick and to seek medical help when they are ill rather than using medicines left over from the previous year or from recommendations by friends or previous prescriptions.
To prevent medication errors, safeguarding advocates say it is a shared responsibility that must involve informed caregivers, accessible health care services and increased public awareness to ensure that every child receives safe, effective and age- and condition-appropriate treatment.
