Medical Reports: HEALTHCAST: Dosage

WSVN -- Knowing your child's weight could help prevent a potentially life threatening drug overdose.

Dr. Yasmin Tyler-Hill: "With children, medication should be based on weight. Every medication that I give is a per pound or per kilogram per dose."

Pediatrician Yasmin Tyler-Hill advises parents to read the labels of over-the-counter medicine or consult a dosage chart to make sure a child receives the right amount of medicine.

Dr. Yasmin Tyler-Hill: "Because it's over the counter, we think it's safe and so if we think using a little bit of it will work, well using more of it will be better and that is not the way to look at these drugs."

Dr. Tyler-Hill sees a lot of mistakes being made with acetaminophen or Tylenol. It's easy to obtain and often used as a fever reducer, but giving too much, too often can cause liver damage.

It's not just adults serving up the wrong dosage, so are teenagers who may have free reign of the medicine cabinet.

Dr. Yasmin Tyler-Hill: "They really are not at the age to understand that the correct dose if it doesn't work shouldn't be tripled or doubled on its own."

If you suspect that too much medicine has been ingested, call poison control or see a doctor immediately.