Doctors warn that using domestic spoons to give children medicine increases overdose risk

Medical experts have warned parents that using domestic spoons to dispense children’s medicine could lead to overdoses after discovering that some hold two to three times as much as others.

Researchers looked at teaspoons and tablespoons collected from 25 households. They found that the capacity of the teaspoons ranged from 2.5ml to 7.3ml, while the capacity of the tablespoons ranged from 6.7ml to 13.4ml.

The variations between the domestic spoon sizes was considerable and in some case bore no relation to the proper calibrated spoons included in many commercially available children’s medicines.

A parent using one of the biggest domestic teaspoons would be giving their child 192 per cent more medicine than a parent using the smallest teaspoon and the difference was 100 per cent for the tablespoons. This increases the chance of a child receiving an overdose or indeed too little medication.

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