Although compounding has always been a difficult area of pharmacy practice, but probably some of the most interesting and innovative compounds are formulations made for pediatric patients. All parents will confirm that giving medication to any kid can be a challenging task. But most compounding pharmacists in the present day are equipped with valuable trade secrets to make administration of medicine easier to children. Many pharmacies offer a variety of flavor, and kids can select their preferred flavor.

Commercial dosage forms for pediatric patients are rather limited and compounding provides options where commercial medicine leaves a gap. For example; children cannot swallow tablets and capsules until they are school going. At times, the only dosage of medicine commercially available may be distasteful. In other cases, some medications may only be available in form of pills. Here, in situations like these, compounding pharmacists are the ones who can provide alternatives that too with the correct dosage.  These alternatives include suspensions, solutions, emulsions, transdermal preparations, lollipops, gummies, rapid-dissolve tablets, and suppositories.

Transdermal gel is one of the most commonly used pediatric dosage alternative that cures nausea and vomiting, like promethazine. It can be easily made into a topical formulation for rubbing onto the wrist or other skinny parts of the body. For children below 2, many physicians prefer to use trimethobenzamide for nausea.  Like their oral and rectal counterparts, though these forms of medicine too have the same side effects of sleepiness, but are a lot easier to use and quickly absorbs into the body.

Another common symptom in children is sore throat, which normally occurs with tonsillitis with a viral infection, or a streptococcus infection. In such cases, parents mostly opt for tetracaine lollipops. These lollipops are available in various sizes to suit all age groups, and the dosage varies from 0.5% to 4%, depending on the patient’s condition.

Many experienced compounders are today available who can flavor bitter, salty, or sour-tasting medications like metronidazole also, palatable.

Diaper rash is another common pediatric condition, and compounding pharmacists are a great help here too. Pediatricians prefer to use cholestyramine gel for persistent diaper rash caused by diarrhea. It is formulated in a petrolatum (e.g. Aquaphor) or hydrophilic cream base and binds the bile acids that results in irritation and redness.

For dental problems in children, a sedative compound sometimes is prescribed prior to dental procedures. These are generally administered 30 to 60 minutes before the procedure. Such compounds may include chloral hydrate, promethazine, hydroxyzine, diazepam, midazolam, meperidine, either alone or in different combinations. Each formulation is specially made to suit the needs of an individual patient. These components can be formulated in a single dosage, or a fast- dissolving pill.

Topical anesthetics such as lidocaine/epinephrine/tetracaine are frequently used in hospital settings and emergency departments to numb the skin for injections, drawing blood, or stitching wounds.

One more popular formulation is lidocaine/ benzocaine/ tetracaine gel, which can be used for minor in-office procedures, for example ear piercing. It helps ease pain and anxiety.

By now, it must be clear that the pediatric patients have very explicit remedial needs and commercially available medications can never meet all these needs. The  innovative compounding pharmacists at Village Green Apothecary can help a great deal in providing alternatives with specialized dosage and flavoring to meet the individual needs of pediatric patients.

Most of the parents would happily agree with me when I say that every child at some point has made and unnecessary fuss. This may be at the dinner table or while getting dressed in the morning or taking their routine medicines.
As parents, you know that kids can put you in a challenging situation often when it comes to taking their medicines. A child may resist taking a liquid medicine because of its bad taste. Some children have difficulty in gulping down capsules and pills. Almost all children (including adults) have a fear of needles and syringes.
Compounding pharmacy or pediatric compounding plays a significant role in making it easy for parents to give their child a complete dose of medicine without any resistance and unpleasantness. Pediatric compounding has a lot to offer in terms of a variety of flavors for pediatric medicines and suspensions that make an awfully tasting medicine edible.

In case you didn’t know, many medications that are available commercially and prescribed by pediatricians aren’t labelled for young children. Naturally if a medicine isn’t approved for administration in infants and young children, its dosage, form, and potency would not be suitable for using them in pediatric patients.
Pediatric compounding has the ability to formulate medicines into more infant and children friendly dosage, flavors and forms such as liquids, lollipops. These are a great help in cases where the child is too young to take medicine following a surgery, suppositories.
Professional compounding, is not limited to diluting the regular medications and mixing powders with bases. They make medications which do not contain certain preservatives, allergens or dyes that a particular kid may be allergic to. They consider physical as well as chemical properties of each active and inactive component in order to formulate an effective and safe made to order medication with the required taste, smell, thickness, color, consistency, quality, and potency.
A pediatrician, while prescribing medication to the patient can specifically mention the dosage just right for the kid. The experts at the compounding agency can therefore offer you a customized medicine best suited to your kid. Examples of such formulations include Omeprazole Suspension, Custom “Butt” pastes and Clonicel.
The effectiveness of any compounded medication is directly related to the method, skill and equipment used in making the formulation, purity of the ingredients, choice of the medicine bases, and correct use of additives such as penetration boosters.

Let’s take a scenario. Your child is sick and you take him to the child specialist. The physician, after examining the patient, prescribes a medication. You get the medicine and come back home only to find that your kid does not take the medicine. Does it sound familiar? Let’s face it. It’s not just your child but almost all children have a trouble consuming a variety of today’s medicines. The fact is that you cannot actually blame them.

For a very long time, the therapeutic options for kids have been fairly restricted because the range of pediatric formulations available in the market is very limited. The dosage, dosage forms and flavors of many commercially available medications are mostly designed for adults. The form or the dosage is therefore, at times, incompatible with the requirements of young patients. With a view to increase the compatibility rate, we need to have a system which offers improved therapeutic outcomes and makes it simple for parents to give medication to their kids.
There is a solution and it is a special kind of pharmacy; pediatric compounding; a branch of compounding pharmacy. Here, Village Green Apothecary formulates customized medications for the patient in the form of topical gels for nausea and vomiting, balms and creams for diaper rash, or lollipops for sore throats. Each of these formulations requires a prescription. So make sure that your child specialist knows about these options available in the market. This will result in getting your child the right dose of medicine available in the form and flavor that he/she can consume without difficulty.
For young patients who find it difficult to ingest tablets or capsules, the same drug is available in an oral suspension or a liquid form as well. If the medicine tastes awful, the kid might refuse to take it. The variety of flavors can be used to put together a combination that children like.
Besides the dosage form and taste of the medicine, certain kids are sensitive to certain preservatives or fillers used in the drug. A compounding pharmacy can refrain from using these ingredients while preparing the medication to making it risk-free for the child.
This article outlines a few alternatives that can be exercised in order to help not just the patients but the physicians and parents of young children as well in taking medicines.
Special formulation for kids: Specially flavored mixtures, suspensions, chews or suppositories can be prepared for the kids to make their administration easier for the parents. The dose or the quantity of the medicine used can be customized to suit the kid’s requirements. When not restricted to doses only designed for adults, and altering the potency of each dose to suit the infant’s need will also play down any side effects.
Coating medicines with edible flavors: There are a number of palatable flavors like chocolate, raspberry, vanilla and bubblegum available in the market to camouflage the taste of the medicine. This will help in making the taste of the medicine pleasant to even the fussiest pallet, improve its quality, and makes the parent’s job a bit easy.
You must be curious to know what the basis of these formulations is. Well, many of the formulations used in various laboratories come from our chemical supplier, Professional Compounding Centers of America, who provides us with formulations, training, and education. It contains hundreds of formulations for infants and kids frequently used across the world. It includes oral, ophthalmic, rectal, and injectable products. The wealth of information that this text provides ensures that the formulations made for the pediatric patients will be reliable, consistent and dependable.
In addition to the formulations, this text also refers to the very important stability data specifically for these preparations which is generally not very easy to obtain.