Medications for Fever
Fever is not harmful. Only treat a fever to make your child comfortable. Most fevers will respond to either acetaminophen or ibuprofen, given once every 6 hours or up to 4 times daily.
For high fevers that do not respond to a single medicine, you can alternate acetaminophen and ibuprofen at 3-hour intervals (Give each single medicine only once every 6 hours.)
Please note the concentration change underway for infants’ acetaminophen products. Check your bottle labels carefully!
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) Dosing |
||||||
| Weight | Age | Drops – old (80mg/0.8ml) |
Susp – new (160mg/5ml) |
Tabs (80mg) |
Elixir (160mg/tsp) |
Caplets (160mg) |
| 6-11 lbs | 0-3 mo | 0.4 ml | 1.25 ml | |||
| 12-17 lbs | 4-11 mo | 0.8 ml | 2.5 ml | ½ tsp | ||
| 18-23lbs | 12-23 mo | 1.2 ml | 3.75 ml | ¾ tsp | ||
| 24-35 lbs | 2-3 yr | 1.6 ml | 5 ml | 2 | 1 tsp | |
| 36-47 lbs | 4-5 yr | 3 | 1½ tsp | |||
| 48-59 lbs | 6-8 yr | 4 | 2½ tsp | 2½ | ||
| 60-71 lbs | 9-10 yr | 5 | 2½ tsp | 2½ | ||
| 72-95 lbs | 11 yr | 6 | 3 tsp | 3 | ||
| > 95 lbs | 12-14 yr |
4
|
||||
Ibuprofen (Motrin) Dosing |
||||||
| Weight | Age | Drops (50mg/1.25ml) |
Susp (100mg/5ml) |
Chew (50mg) |
Chew (100mg) |
Caplets (100mg) |
| 12-17 lbs | 6-11 mo | 1.25 ml | ½ tsp | |||
| 18-23lbs | 12-23 mo | 1.875 ml | ¾ tsp | |||
| 24-35 lbs | 2-3 yrs | 1 tsp | 2 | |||
| 36-47 lbs | 4-5 yrs | 1½ tsp | 3 | |||
| 48-59 lbs | 6-8 yrs | 2 tsp | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
| 60-71 lbs | 9-10 yrs | 2½tsp | 5 | 2½ | 2½ | |
| 72-95 lbs | > 11 yrs | 3 tsp | 6 | 3 | 3 | |