The Past, Present, and Future of Oral Dosage Forms for Children.

The administration of medications to children has been a challenge for parents and caregivers for generations. Pharmaceutical companies have often overcome the difficulties of weight-based dosing and the -inability of most young children to swallow solid dosage forms by creating oral liquids. While oral liquids -offer advantages in terms of dose flexibility, swallowability, and ease of administration for young children and patients with enteral tubes, they have been plagued by issues such as taste, volume, and texture, to name a few.

ey Potentially nappropriate rugs in Pediatrics: The KIDs List.

Objectives: The safe use of medications in pediatric patients requires practitioners to consider the unique pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs prescribed in this age group. In an effort to create a standard of care for the safe use of medications in this population, a list of drugs that are potentially inappropriate for use in pediatric patients has been developed and titled the "KIDs List."

Methods: A panel of 7 pediatric pharmacists from the Pediatric Pharmacy Association were recruited to evaluate primary, secondary, and tertiary literature; FDA Pediatric Safety Communications; the Lexicomp electronic database; and product information for drugs that should be considered potentially inappropriate for use in pediatric patients.

Caring for and assessing pediatric patients: Aspects to consider as a pharmacy practitioner.

Purpose: Pharmacists care for patients of all ages. Pediatric patients are not smaller versions of adults; thus, they provide a unique challenge to pharmacists. Basic components of patient assessment and considerations for medication dosing and administration for pediatric patients are reviewed here.

Implementing a pediatric pharmacy educational program for health-system pharmacists.

Objective: To implement an educational program to improve pediatric content knowledge and confidence in providing pediatric care among health-system pharmacists.

Design: Pharmacists were asked to voluntarily participate in this prospective, observational education program. A demographic assessment, pre- and post-intervention confidence assessments, and pre- and post-lecture competency assessments were conducted to evaluate the program.

Pharmacotherapy review of chronic pediatric hypertension.

Background: The number of antihypertensive agents on the market has increased dramatically over the past 20 years. Many of these agents are used to treat children and adolescents with hypertension despite there being relatively limited data available supporting such use. Recent legislation has helped to increase the number of studies conducted in children, but many clinical questions remain unanswered.

Pediatric fluid and electrolyte therapy.

Managing fluids and electrolytes in children is an important skill for pharmacists, who can play an important role in monitoring therapy. Fluid therapy is divided into maintenance, deficit, and replacement requirements. The Holliday-Segar equation remains the standard method for calculating maintenance fluid requirements.