The "Rule of 6" for pediatric amoxicillin dosing

Amoxicillin is typically dosed at 40 mg per kg per day. In the U.S. which will forever be stuck in the dark ages of pounds and ounces (instead of kg and ml), many calculations are required in order to figure out how much amoxicillin to give to a kid. Here is a short cut:

   Weight in Pounds  x  6   =   mg dose of amoxicillin per dose

Let's go through an example. Assuming that you have a 40 pound child in your office, the calculation would look like this: 40 x 6 = 240. So this child would need 240 mg of amoxicillin 3x/day. The important thing to remember is that this calculation is PER DOSE (and NOT per day). And because, amoxicillin is prepared as 250 mg per teaspoon, this kid would need approximately one tsp by mouth 3x/day for 10 days. Piece of cake! And no calculators involved! This rule also works for Pen VK. And it works of Keflex and Augmentin as long as you dose both of them 3x/day. There are other antibiotics that follow the "Rule of 6" but I forgot which ones off hand.

This is a handy tip I learn from my friend and partner Ron Reynolds. And I think he even wrote a paper on it somewhere (I'll check to see if I have permission to publish the original article)...