Dose of antibiotics by weight band

Penicillin

Weight in kg 50,000 iu/kg/dose
Sepsis dose		 100,000 iu/kg/dose
Meningitis dose
BD 1st week
QID week 2 onwards
0.5-0.99 50,000 100,000
1-1.49 75,000 150,000
1-1.49 75,000 150,000
1.5-1.99 100,000 200,000
2.0-2.49 125,000 250,000
2.5-2.99 150,000 300,000
3.0-3.49 175,000 350,000
3.5-3.99 200,000 400,000
4-4.49 225,000 450,000
4.5 -4.99 250,000 500,000

Gentamicin

Weight in kg 3mg/kg/Dose OD
1st week LBW		 5mg/kg/ Dose OD
1st week Term		 7.5mg/kg Dose
LBW & term
Week 2 onwards
0.75-0.99 2.5 6.5
1.0-1.24 3.5 8
1.25-1.49 4 10
1.5-1.74 5 12
1.75-1.99 5.5 14
2-2.24 6 16
2.25-2.49 7 18
2.5-2.74 13 20
2.75-2.99 14 22
3-3.24 16 23
3.25-3.49 17 25
3.5-3.74 18 27
3.75-3.99 19 29
4- 4.24 21 31
4.25-4.49 22 33
4.5 – 4.74 23 35
4.75-4.99 24 36

Aminophylline for prevention of apnoeas of prematurity

Dissolve 100mg tablets in 20mls of water, each ml contains 5mg of aminophylline
5mg/kg to load and 2.5mg/kg BD

Weight Stat dose to load Aminophylline solution BD dose Aminophylline solution
0.75- 0.99 5mg 1ml 2mg 0.4mls
1.0 -1.49 7.5mg 1.5mls 3mg 0.6mls
1.5 – 1.99 10mg 2mls 4mg 0.8mls

High dose Co-trimoxazole and steroids for presumed PJP

Cotrimoxazole 60mg/kg BD for 3 weeks (21 days)
then prophylactic CPT of 120mg OD