Medication Monitoring

It is important that what medication a child takes is carefully considered. Active monitoring is critical when a medication is started. This includes parents, teachers, and others who have care for a child. Children should be watched and questioned for side effects. Many children will not offer this information on their own. Here are the things to check for.

• Is the child actually taking the medication?
• Is it the proper dosage being taken?
• Is it being taken on the correct schedule? (E.g., Time of day).

Adapted from NIMH (2002). Medications(4th edition). NIH Publication No. 02-3929. Accessed on October 24, 2005 at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/medicate.cfm.