Don’t Use Dinner—table Spoons for Liquid Medicines

Liquid medicines can be tricky to measure correctly. Doctors recommend measuring drugs with tools such as medicine droppers and oral syringes. They strongly prefer the use of these over such things as （A） k______ spoons. But recommendations are only helpful if people follow them. And many parents dont； for convenience， they often use teaspoons instead for their sick （1） c______.

The name “teaspoon” can apply to two types of spoons. A teaspoon for baking has a precise size. It always delivers the same （B） a_____of an ingredient. But the term is also given to a spoon that is part of a flatware set used for dining. These dinnerware teaspoons can vary widely in size. A （C） p______ who uses one of those spoons risks dispensing too much or too little （D） m______.

Doctors also support guidelines by the U.S. Centers for Disease （E） C______and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Both recommend that doctors and drug companies （2） l____dose information only in milliliter units， instead of metric ones.

Such a switch might help parents， who can become distracted when dealing with a sick child. They could misread tablespoon for teaspoon. Or they might confuse the （3） n______ for this unit with the milliliter amount. Giving 2 tablespoons instead of 2 milliliters， doctors note， would result in a child ingesting 15 times the labeled dose. A serious （4） o____could cause abnormal heart rhythms or even seizures.

Besides， its important for kids to start learning about how to take care of their own （F） h______， even at a young age. That way， when they are on their own， away from their parents， they will know what to do to keep themselves healthy.

（A， B， C， D， E， F FOR CROSS， 1， 2， 3， 4 FOR DOWN. The first letters of the absents were given.）

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