How often do you use a proper measuring device such as a measuring cap,syringe or dropper to give prescribed amount of liquid medicine to your little one who has got up in the middle of the night due to severe cold or flu?Not very often I suppose.Most of us adopt the simplest approach-using a kitchen spoon to give medicine.But a recent study shows that such an approach can be quiet dangerous.Former cold and flu patients were asked to pour out nighttime flu medicine into kitchen spoons.Researchers found that 195 of these patients poured an average of 8% too little or 12% excess of medicine depending upon the size of the spoon.While using a small spoon,participants tend to pour less medicine than the recommended dose.While using a larger spoon made them pour excess than the required amount. “Twelve percent more may not sound like a lot, but this goes on every four to eight hours, for up to four days, “according to Dr. Brian Wansink, Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, who led the study. “So it really adds up – to the point of ineffectiveness or even danger.”The study appears in the Jan. 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Visual illusions and spatial relationships are familiar topics in Wansink’s work in food and eating behavior. In his book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, he shows how smaller plates can unknowingly decrease how much people eat, and how taller glasses can decrease the amount of alcohol poured by even expert bartenders.
“Simply put, we cannot always trust our ability to estimate amounts,” said the study’s co-author, Dr. Koert van Ittersum, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Georgia Tech. “In some cases it may not be important, but when it comes to the health of you or your child, it is vital to make an accurate measurement.”
Wansink and van Ittersum recommend using a proper device – a measuring cap or dropper, or dosing spoon or syringe – to measure liquid medicine