Doctors warn against giving kids adult medication amidst drug shortages

TULSA, Okla. — As some medications become harder to find in Green County, doctors are warning about the dangers of giving smaller doses of adult medications to kids.

Doctors say an uptick in respiratory illnesses has led to shortages of children’s ibuprofen, like Motrin and Advil, and children’s acetaminophen, such as Tylenol.

Those shortages have left some parents struggling to get hold of pain relief for their sick kids.

One Tulsa mom, who didn’t want to be identified, said she’s been struggling to get infant Tylenol for her six-month-old who’s teething.

“My heart breaks for him, because I can only imagine the pain that he’s going through,” she said.

She said she’s been left facing some empty shelves.

“Completely empty, it looks like a zombie apocalypse happened,” she said.

Last month, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association said demand had increased 65% compared to last year. They also said manufacturers were working at maximum capacity to replenish supplies.

Among all this, videos showing how to cut adult Tylenol to make a kids’ dosage have appeared on social media. But Dr. Jeffrey Rice, a pediatric doctor at the Saint Francis Warren Springer Clinic, says that’s not a good idea.

“You’ll see a lot of things on TikTok and other social media platforms that will show you these ways to make the kids medications out of the adult medications, I do not advise using that,” he said.

Dr. Rice said figuring out kids’ doses isn’t as easy as those videos make it look.

“You know you don’t know what dose they’re using, you don’t know all the specifics that go into it and just to try to figure out a dose of kids’ medication is not as easy as it looks, there’s a whole lot that goes into the specific milligrams per milliliters and the math to actually come up with the right dose so you’re not over dosing and that gets tricky when’re you start dealing with different dosages, so definitely talk to your pediatrician, worst case scenario if the kid is obviously clinically ill and needing a little bit more, take them in to be seen,” he said.

Dr. Rice also said parents should monitor their kids and that kids might not always need medicine.

“Sometimes our body’s way of fighting the illness is to let it kind of increase the temperature, and so what it does is that’s your immune system picking up and saying, ‘Ok cool where’s this stuff coming from? Let’s fight it,’ and so that temperature sometimes is actually sometimes helpful, so you don’t have to treat it as long as the kid clinically looks fine otherwise,” he said.

The Tulsa mom we spoke to said she managed to get hold of some travel sized bottles of infant Tylenol and is rationing what she uses it to make it last.

“We only use like if it’s to where he’s screaming his head off and...teething tablets aren’t working, the teething toys that don’t really do it,” she said.

Doctors say a fever is considered to be 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. In a baby less than 6-months-old, that is an emergency. In older kids, it depends on their fever and if they’re struggling or if they’re otherwise OK. If you are worried, the best thing to do is call a doctor.

Doctors also say be careful with medicine because the wrong dosage and frequency of medication can cause problems with the liver and kidneys.

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