The BNF for Children provides essential practical information to all healthcare professionals involved in the prescribing, dispensing, monitoring and administration of medicines to children.

The resource addresses a significant knowledge gap in many areas of paediatric practice by providing practical information on the use of medicines in children of all ages from birth to adolescence.

The BNF for Children 2015-2016 has been revised and revalidated to reflect changes in product availability, emerging safety concerns and shifts in clinical practice.

SIGNIFICANT CONTENT UPDATES INCLUDE:

* Updated monographs with links to ?Medicines for children? leaflets, which provide parents and carers with information about how to use certain medicines in children
* New safety information about reducing the risk of QT interval prolongation and Torsade de Pointes for hydroxyzine Further guidance on the restricted use of codeine for cough and cold symptoms in children
* Updated dosing information for the use of tramadol in the treatment of acute and chronic pain
* Update on the scheduling of sodium oxybate under the Misuse of Drugs Regulation 2001
* Guidance on the use of domperidone for the treatment of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in children
* Updated dosing information on the use of nifedipine for the treatment of hypertensive crisis, acute angina and Kawasaki disease or progeria.
* Advice about the risk of hepatotoxicity and phototoxicity with voriconazole treatment

UNIQUE BENEFITS

* Shares the structure of the British National Formulary (BNF) and is designed to be used in paediatric and general practice settings
* Includes information on unlicensed use of medicines and provides details of unlicensed medicines that can be imported, manufactured by ?special order' or prepared extemporaneously
* Covers the drug treatment of rare childhood conditions, provides guidance on specialist paediatric interventions and includes details of those medicines that are used in children in a different way to adults
* As a point-of-care tool it is important that it provides practitioners with the most up-to-date information and therefore the latest edition is essential.

Published jointly by the British Medical Association, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacists Group