When children fall ill it can be an uncomfortable and difficult period for both the child and the carer. Quite often administering medicine to a child can be very challenging. Children either don’t want to, or can’t, take tablets or capsules. And they don’t want to take liquids that don’t taste good. Children generally don’t hesitate to spit out medication, close their lips tightly, and refuse to co-operate. Despite all this, therapy is often designed for several days’ duration, or even longer. Different pharmacists have used different approaches to get children to look forward to taking their medication.

Dosage Forms for Pediatric Patients

The most commonly used, and commercially available, dosage form for pediatric patients is the orally administered liquid. This is available as solutions, suspensions and emulsions, which are de- signed to be taken in large quantities such as teaspoons and tablespoonsful, or in small quantities such as drops.  We can help make it easier for parents to administer the medication to their children by specially preparing medicines that are attractive to young children in design and taste. This will help increase compliance and improve therapeutic outcomes.

There is a limited range of pediatric formulations on the market. The doses, dose forms and flavors of many commercially available medications are often designed for adults and unsuitable for these sometimes challenging young patients.

We can formulate:

• Suitable designed Dose Forms – the dose form of the medication used can be tailored to suite the infant or child’s requirements. We can prepare specially flavored mixtures, suspensions, troches/lozenges, popsicles, gummy gels, chewing gums, suckers/lollipops, puddings/jellos, and even forms for topical administration.
• Tailored Dosages – the strength of each dose can be tailor made for the infant in order to minimise any side effects.
• Palatable Flavours – a wide variety of palatable flavours such as chocolate, raspberry, vanilla and bubblegum are available to mask the taste of the medication. This helps improve compliance and makes the parents job a little easier.

We are happy to work with your doctor or specialist to formulate a medicine that is tailored to the health needs of your child.

Contact us for further information or to book an appointment with the compounding pharmacist.