Pediatric compounding is the best option to help children get their medications. Children prefer sweeter tasting medicine, but many medications do not provide better tasting options. A pediatric compounding pharmacy converts its bitter medicines into sweet solutions, suspensions, and syrups.
A compounding pharmacy has an important role to play in the field of pediatric medicine. These specialized pharmacies can offer solutions to specific patient needs that arise in the pediatric population. Pediatric medicine should be tailored to suit the taste buds of children which many commercial medicines are unable to manufacture. Bulk manufactured medicine is offered only in solid oral dosage forms which children despise consuming. That’s where a pediatric compounding pharmacy steps in to offer child-friendly alternatives, such as a suspension, suppository, or lozenge formulated medicines, for parents and doctors to administer.
The United States Food and Drug Administration defines drug compounding as “the process of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient”. Compounding pharmacies are important because they fulfill unique patient needs. To make this happen, collaboration is advised between the medical practitioner, patient, and compounding pharmacist.
Children often find pills hard to swallow. A compounding pharmacist can convert the pill format into sweet-flavored solutions, suspensions or syrups which are easy to swallow. From providing customized medicinal strengths and dosage forms to flavoring medications, a pediatric compounding pharmacy can help children take medicine more easily.
Some kids have special healthcare needs that pose a greater challenge for medical practitioners. A compounding pharmacy that is knowledgeable about the pharmaceutical chemistry of each drug can ensure that the patient receives a customized medication suitable to the patient’s needs. Children may also be sensitive to gritty textures. In such cases, a compounding pharmacist reduces the particle size of the medication providing a smoother texture for the child. This is especially important when preparing lozenges and suspensions.
Compounding pharmacies can also supply compounded medications that meet the needs of children with common and uncommon food allergies. It is almost impossible to find a commercially available medication that is sugar-free, gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, or dye-free. Each child has unique allergies and medicinal tolerances that medication compounding can accommodate to. Our compounding pharmacists work closely with your pediatricians to help formulate medication that meets any specific requirements in pediatric medicine.