"Parents should not give their children medicine from an ordinary teaspoon", said the Daily Express. The newspaper said that spoon size can vary greatly, leading to doses that are far too large or small.
The research behind this story measured the sizes of a sample of teaspoons collected from 25 households in Greece. These varied in size, with the smallest holding 2.5ml of liquid and the largest holding 7.3ml of liquid. A standard dosing teaspoon hol
ds 5ml. The research also found variation in the amount of medicine participants used to fill a standard 5ml spoon.
In the UK, the NHS-prescribed medications for children come with a standard-sized spoon or measuring cup and sometimes an oral syringe. People are advised to never use a household teaspoon to administer liquid medication as they vary in size. If you are concerned about how to measure out and give medicine to your child, ask your pharmacist, who can advise you.
Where did the story come from?The study was carried out by researchers from The Alfa Institute of Biomedical medicine Sciences in Greece, and received no external funding. The study was published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Clinical Practice.
The newspapers all emphasised the key message of this research, which was that household teaspoons should not be used to give liquid medicine to children. The study did not look to see if there were any adverse health effects from using inaccurate measures such as household teaspoons. The headline in the Daily Mirror said that spoons present an ‘OD (overdose) risk for kids’ but it may be unhelpful to refer to overdoses in this manner as readers might assume it means there is a risk of serious outcomes such as death.
What kind of research was this?The size of dose of liquid medication is often presented in terms of numbers of teaspoons. This Greek survey investigated the variations in the size of household teaspoons to assess whether there would be differences in the doses taken by individuals from different households due to the size of their teaspoons.
What did the research involve?The researchers asked 25 women from 25 households in Attica, Greece to collect all of the different tablespoons and teaspoons that were available in their house. Two of the researchers then measured how much water each spoon could hold using calibrated syringes.
The newspapers all emphasised the key message of this research, which was that household teaspoons should not be used to give liquid medicine to children. The study did not look to see if there were any adverse health effects from using inaccurate measures such as household teaspoons. The headline in the Daily Mirror said that spoons present an ‘OD (overdose) risk for kids’ but it may be unhelpful to refer to overdoses in this manner as readers might assume it means there is a risk of serious outcomes such as death.
What kind of research was this?The size of dose of liquid medication is often presented in terms of numbers of teaspoons. This Greek survey investigated the variations in the size of household teaspoons to assess whether there would be differences in the doses taken by individuals from different households due to the size of their teaspoons.
What did the research involve?The researchers asked 25 women from 25 households in Attica, Greece to collect all of the different tablespoons and teaspoons that were available in their house. Two of the researchers then measured how much water each spoon could hold using calibrated syringes.
