1 Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM 87131
To the Editor.
Drug efficacy depends, in part, upon adequate dosage. It has been recognized in our outpatient pediatric clinic that parents have sometimes unwittingly given to their febrile child amounts of liquid acetaminophen inadequate for fever control.
Based on available clinical and pharmacokinetic data, oral acetaminophen should be administered in single doses in the range of 10 to 15 mg/kg at four-hour intervals.1 To achieve this dosage range in infants, only small volumes of concentrated acetaminophen "drops" (80 mg/0.8 mL) are necessary.