It has been suggested by US pediatricians that children's liquid medicines must be measured in metric units to reduce the instances of overdose, common with teaspoons and tablespoons.

Dr. Ian Paul, a pediatrician at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Children's Hospital, said that many children reach to emergency rooms after accidental medicine overdoses every year and reason is often badly labeled containers or unclear directions.

"Even though we know metric units are safer and more accurate, too many healthcare providers are still writing that prescription using spoon-based dosing. Some parents use household spoons to administer it, which can lead to dangerous mistakes", said Paul, who is also lead author of new metric dosing guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

According to Paul, unintentionally using a tablespoon in place of a teaspoon would triple the dose. In order to not make mistakes linked to common kitchen spoons, the guidelines advice that liquid medicines taken by mouth must be dosed by making use of milliliters.

The experts said that prescriptions must involve so-called leading zeros like 0.5 for a half mL dose and not include so-called trailing zeroes like 0.50 in order to decrease the potential for parents to misunderstand the dosing. Since the 1970s, the AAP has been putting efforts for more correct dosing of children's medicines.

As per the experts, the latest guidelines are the most extensive call for metric dosing to date and are planned to reach drug manufacturers, pharmacists, retailers, prescribers and caregivers. The guidelines recommend that manufacturers must remove labeling, instructions and dosing devices that have non-metric units. Cups or syringes that are given with medicines must be labeled in metric units and should not be much larger than the maximum dose.