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Dosage
Guidelines for Herbs and Nutritional Supplements
For
many of the treatments that are recommended in
this section, dosage instructions may be found
on the products themselves, whether as part of
the product label or your doctor's prescription.
This is particularly true of the conventional
medicines and homeopathic remedies. There are
two categories of treatments where label information
may not be sufficient, however: herbal preparations
and nutritional supplements.
HERBAL
DOSAGES
When
treating your child with herbs, it is important
to base the dosage on your child's age, weight,
and condition. Unless otherwise specified elsewhere
in this book, use the following age-specific dosage
equivalents when administering herbal remedies:
-
Newborn
to two years. One dose equals 3 drops of tincture
diluted in ¼ cup of water, formula,
or breast milk, or 2 or 3 teaspoons of tea.
A nursing mother may also take an adult dose
of the appropriate herbal treatment. The herbs
will be transmitted to her baby through her
breast milk, filtered and diluted to the appropriate
strength.
-
Two
to six years. One dose equals 6 to 10 drops
of tincture diluted in ¼ cup of water,
or ¼ cup of tea.
-
Six
to twelve years. One dose equals 10 to 20
drops of tincture, ½ cup of tea, or
1 tablet or capsule.
-
Twelve
years to adult. One dose equals 20 to 40 drops
of tincture, 1 cup of tea, or 2 tablets or
capsules.
NUTRITIONAL
SUPPLEMENT DOSAGES
For
nutritional supplements, unless other dosage levels
are specified in the individual entries, consult
the table below for the appropriate therapeutic
dosages of the various supplements recommended
in the Part Two entries.
Note that all of the amounts in this table are
therapeutic doses. That is, they do not necessary
represent the amounts of these nutrients that
your child needs on a daily basis, but rather
increased amounts that may be helpful for certain
conditions when taken for limited periods of time.
Also, some dosages are given in international
units(IU); others in milligrams(mg); and still
others in micrograms(mcg, the equivalent of 1/1000
of a milligram).
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