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I have a package of Daktarin oral gel, and want to decide what quantity to take. I have trouble understanding the leaflet. The box says that each gram of the gel contains 20 mg of the active ingredient, miconazole.

Under the third heading in the leaflet, it says:

Infections of the stomach and gut: Adults, Children and infants over 40 months: 20 mg per kg of body weight per day. Divided into four doses a day. Maximum dose is 10 ml of gel four times a day

Do they mean 20 mg of whole gel or just the active ingredient?

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  • Hello foobarbinbaz, and welcome! We cannot provide personal advice about what amount of medicine is the best for somebody's case, that's something only your doctor can do. I suspect somebody downvoted you because they thought that's what you're asking about. We can, however, help you understand the meaning of a medicine's leaflet. I edited your question to make it more clear that it is the second case you are asking about.
    – rumtscho
    Jan 7, 2016 at 13:56
  • @rumtscho that's exactly what I meant. I need help deciphering the leaflet. When they say 20 mg per kg of body weight, do they mean 20 mg of the gel or just its active ingredient?
    – foobarbinbaz
    Jan 7, 2016 at 20:36
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    I sadly don't know the answer, but the question got several upvotes after my edit, so it has a good chance now that somebody will answer. We are still rather small, so answers can take a while. But thank you for coming back and confirming that the edit was OK - here, everybody can edit a post, but edits which misrepresent the original author's intent are seen as invalid and reversed.
    – rumtscho
    Jan 7, 2016 at 20:39

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First of all, the leaflet in question also states:

Your doctor will tell you how much Daktarin oral gel to take and for how long you should take it.

It is essential that your therapy is supervised by a physician, primarily because infections of the stomach and the gut may be serious. The doctor can monitor how you respond to therapy in terms of both efficacy and safety (i.e. possible side effects).

That being said, it is important that you understand the information provided in the leaflet, so here goes the explanation.

20 mg is the dose of the active substance. This is a common practice because there may be preparations of different concentrations.

There is an example of dose calculation based on body weight in: Pharmacy Technician Certification Review and Practice Exam edited by Barbara Lacher.

The other problem with you calculating the dose yourself is that the concentration is expressed as mass fraction, from which one can calculate the total mass of the preparation to be taken. On the other hand the measuring spoon provided (at least according to the attached leaflet) is scaled in milliliters and measures volume. To convert mass to volume you need the density of the preparation, which is not given in this document. This bit is probably known to your physician/health care team.

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