Paediatric Compounding

Standard commercial drugs don’t always account for children’s unique needs.

Sometimes that’s a specific dosage, an allergen-free formulation, or simply a more appealing flavour. At Zenith Pharmacy, we can offer a solution by tailoring medications to suit each child’s individual requirements including:

Adjusting dosage strengths, Creating palatable flavour options, Removing ingredients for allergy/sensitivity purposes

Why Do Kids Need Customised Medicines?

Young patients are more susceptible to the risks involved with unsuitable medication. Some of the reasoning for this has to do with smaller size, developing organs, and constant metabolic changes. All these factors affect how their bodies process medication and ultimately makes them more vulnerable to the side effects of imprecise dosages (aka. overdosing and underdosing).

It’s also important to remember that a developing immune system makes you more sensitive to allergens.

Sensitivities and intolerances might be heightened to the point where even a trace amount of an ingredient could cause a rather serious reaction. Plus, children are much more likely to resist medication compared to adult patients, especially if the form is unsuitable or the taste is bitter.

Paediatric compounding helps ensure that children receive safe, effective treatments without the usual battles over taste or form. While it can be easy to dismiss some of these battles as part of treating young children, the reality is that these issues can lead to missed doses and incomplete treatment. Not to mention a whole lot of stress for everyone.

Benefits of Paediatric Compounding

1. Custom Dosage and Concentration

Children require precise medication strengths due to the aforementioned risks. But the precise dosage may differ significantly based on their age, weight, and medical conditions. Commercial medicines are typically geared toward the general adult population, which greatly limits the over-the-counter options you have as a parent. With paediatric compounding, we have the opportunity as pharmacists to tailor a precise medication that accounts for all the factors that make your child unique. This precision reduces the risk of under- or overdosing and the nasty effects that come with it.

2. Improved Taste and Palatability

If you want your child to take medication willingly, taste matters. Unfortunately, many OTC options on the shelf have bitter or unpleasant flavours. And frankly, when children dread the experience of taking their medicine, it becomes a lot harder to maintain consistency as a parent. We can customise taste and texture to create child-friendly versions of the prescribed treatment. When kids don’t hate the taste, they’re far more likely to stick to their treatment schedule.

3. Allergen-Free and Sensitivity-Friendly Formulations

Allergies or sensitivities to common ingredients, such as dyes, gluten, or lactose are common in kids. As mentioned earlier, their small size and developing immunity requires us to take these risks a lot more seriously. We can remove or substitute these problematic components, ensuring a safer experience.

4. Flexible Medication Formats

When a child struggles to swallow pills or cope with certain textures, we can provide alternative options. Some examples include topical gels, flavoured liquids, chewable tablets, and lollipops. Along with taste, the format of medication can be a major obstacle for treating young patients. Our team offers these customised formats so that neither you or your child has to stress about the experience.

How Paediatric Compounding Works

Paediatric compounding begins with a doctor’s prescription that outlines the child’s specific needs. We then (within a controlled pharmacy setting) measure and mix active ingredients with carefully selected excipients to achieve the desired strength, format, and flavour. Every step of the process follows strict quality and safety standards to ensure the medication is both effective and child-friendly. And most importantly, this progress accounts for all the things that make your specific child unique.

Why Choose Zenith Pharmacy

At Zenith Pharmacy, we’re incredibly proud of our compounding team. Our team is not only well trained and committed to safety, but also dedicated to providing personal service. It is our genuine belief that you need empathetic and considerate pharmacists to properly tailor medication for unique individuals. Combined with robust protocols and attention to detail, we put our heart on light to offer top-tier compounding services.

Our skilled pharmacists are also specifically trained to handle the unique challenges of formulating medications for children, ensuring accurate dosages and taste options they will actually like.

When you choose Zenith Pharmacy, you’re opting for: