Quality use of medicines: The vomitting child

Abstract

The challenge of rational medicines use in the children is compounded by the presence in the clinical relationship of the parent - often anxious, concerned about the welfare of the child, facing many competing demands (such as a need to avoid spending many hours away from work) and thus frequently demanding of medicines that will deliver quick symptomatic relief. This should be a familiar scenario for any family physician that has treated a child with acute gastroenteritis, with associated vomiting. While demands for anti-diarrhoeal agents, such as loperamide, are perhaps easier to deflect, demands for something that will stop the vomiting are less easily handled.