Charles Sparrow
Introduction - Pharmaceutical errors are a leading cause
of unwanted side effects in paediatrics. With rising levels
of childhood obesity worldwide, larger drug doses are being
prescribed based on total body weight. To minimise
harm, the Ideal Body Weight (IBW) is one suggested
method for weight based calculations of certain medications
in children, but not routinely used. We investigated
the number of overweight children receiving medication
doses based on IBW, and those on total body weight
(TBW) in a paediatric ward in Melbourne, Australia.