Dose It safely

"By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too." - William Shakespeare

Using slightly larger spoons for medicine can result in overdosing which can be dangerous, especially for children.

It's so easy to pull out a kitchen spoon to give or take a dose of liquid medicine.  But it's a bad idea, shows a study from Cornell University in the US.  When people used a medium-sized tablespoon, they underdosed by more than 8%, on average - even after they saw the correct amount.  Using a larger spoon, they overdosed by nearly 12%.  Those errors could be dangerous if you're taking a medicine two to three times a day - or giving even a single dose to a child, says study co-author Koert Van Ittersum.  So stick to dosing cups, dosing syringes, or droppers meant for medicines.

Other stay-safe tips: Don't split sustained-, controlled- or extended- release tablets.  Doing this dumps the medicine all at once.  Don't halve pills with an enteric coating, either.  Do remove an old transdermal patch before putting on a new one.  Apatch can release medicine even after it's time to toss it.