How many times per day is a standard abx dosage?

[Katigre]

DD was just prescribed antibiotics for the first time after getting a nasty cut today. The Rx says to give 3/4 tsp of the antibiotic Cephalexen every 8 hours for 10 days. (This is to help prevent infection in the cut). Does that sound right to you???

Every 8 hours means waking her up at night to take the meds, and we're going out of town which makes this even harder.

So is the E.R. dr. right that it needs to be at this interval? Or is twice a day (morning and evening) alright? I'm concerned about how this is going to affect her gut and digestion too.

Any words of encouragement/advice are much appreciated :).

[elephantmeg]

LOL. Even in the hospital where we wake you up all the time we don't do that. TID (3x a day) dosing is 8am-2pm-8pm. OR my prefered method for TID is to make it twice a day (BID). So to split the dose into 2 doses (my pedi told me I could!) So 1 and 1/8 tsp twice a day. I generally do TID for the first 2 days (to get it into their system well) and then go to BID.

[Katigre]

LOL. Even in the hospital where we wake you up all the time we don't do that. TID (3x a day) dosing is 8am-2pm-8pm. OR my prefered method for TID is to make it twice a day (BID). So to split the dose into 2 doses (my pedi told me I could!) So 1 and 1/8 tsp twice a day. I generally do TID for the first 2 days (to get it into their system well) and then go to BID.
Phew, that sounds more reasonable. What does "tid" and "bid" mean? Here is the Rx:

"Cephalexin 250mg/5ml suspension. Give 3.5ml by mouth every 8 hours for 8 days." I have the little syringe to use with it.

[MamaInMarch]

TID - 3 times a day or as close to every 8 hours as you can get it

BID - 2 times a day or every 12

This is mainly done to keep the levels of the antibiotic in the bloodstream at an effective level. But cephalexin can be and is routinely dosed at anywhere from 2 to 4 times a day. So it's a fairly flexible one.

[elephantmeg]

I edited my message right after I posted to spell out TID and BID. Sorry, I'm at work and reverted to nurse mode!

[elephantmeg]

so if they are saying 3.5 ml 3x a day you would add up the dose and then divide that # by 2

3.5+3.5+3.5 =10.5 ml
and then divide that dose by two so 5.25 ml twice a day

[SnuggleBuggles]

We don't wake up for meds and just try and do them close enough to the time apart.

Beth

[edurnemk]

I don't wake DS up for medicines, I just do it 3 times a day, as close to every 8 hours as I can (unless we need to control a really high fever or something). My dr. has always said we can do this. So for example in your case I'd give him the first does as soon as he wakes up (7 am), the last one at bedtime (8 pm), and the second one right in the middle of that time period (around 1:30 pm)

[o_mom]

I would check with the dr or pharm before changing the dose. Sometimes the twice/day dose is a higher total daily dose than three times/day. For example (made up as I'm on my phone), it might be 400 3x/day, but 800 2x/day. It will vary by drug. In the future, just ask them to write it for twice a day dosing. They may have to look it up, but should be able to.

[jent]

Here is my 0.02 as a doctor... traditional cephalexin dosing used to be QID (aka 4 times a day, every 6 hours) but there have been studies showing that twice daily dosing (every 12 hrs) is adequate. Current dosing guidelines say "divided every 6 to 12 hours." Sometimes, how the drug is dosed depends more on the when/where the doc trained & what they're used to.

I wouldn't change the dose without calling your PCP and confirming an appropriate dose, but it seems reasonable.

Hope your DD heals quickly!

[ett]

3x/day for us would mean in the morning before school, after school, and then at bedtime. We do not wake them up in the middle of the night.

[Katigre]

I called our pediatrician this morning and she concurred with what you guys posted - don't wake her up at night and give it morning-noon-night instead. Thanks for the support! Now to get DD to actually take this stuff without needing two adults to hold her down...