A SCOTTISH pharmacist has launched a new telephone app to help parents monitor the medicines they give to their children.
Parents nursing little ones with treatments such as Calpol can tell the programme when they give the first dose.
It will then show red against the drug until it is safe to administer another spoonful. The mobile phone will alert parents when the next dose can be issued.
Ross Ferguson, a pharmacist who has recently returned to Glasgow from Australia, created the app. He said: "The phone alerts you that it is safe to give the next dose. It does not mean that you have to give the dose then, but it will mean that you are not going to overdose your child.
"With paracetamol the limit is four doses within 24 hours. It will not let you exceed that limit."
The app, he said, would allow parents to combine medications such as ibuprofen and paracetamol, or even and baby teething gel.
He added: "In the middle of the night it is a very organised person who writes down the time or memorises when you have given medicine. Or if there are two of you, you don't always know when the other person has given it. If you have a kid who is really suffering with teething you also want to give them the next dose as soon as possible."
New medicines can be added into the app, called Kid-Dose, although Mr Ferguson stressed it was important to key in the correct information about the maximum number of doses per day and minimum time between doses. He suggested parents spoke to a pharmacist to verify the correct information had been entered.
The app is available in different formats, with one version - which could be used by nurseries - allowing multiple children to be monitored.
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