How to read a syringe (1619)
Key points below
Oral medicine is given in the mouth. It is best to measure liquid medicine with an oral syringe before you give it. There are many sizes, so it is important to use the right one. A small amount of medicine can be hard to measure. Use the smallest syringe you can to be sure to get the right dose.
Spoons are not all the same size. Do not use a spoon to measure your child’s medicine.
A dose of liquid medicine is measured in milliliters, or “mL” for short. Ask the pharmacist for the best syringe to use for the medicine. Have them draw a line on the syringe to show where to measure. Check with the pharmacist each time you get medicine. The strength of the liquid or the dose may have changed.
There are 2 parts to a syringe: 
1. The outer part is a tube that has lines to measure the right amount of medicine.
2. The inner part is the plunger. It sucks the medicine in to the tube. The top straight edge of the plunger is used to measure the medicine. Do not measure at the dome.
Here are different kinds of oral syringes. It is important to look at the numbers on the side to see what size it is. The syringe from your pharmacy may look different.
How to measure:
Important: The lines mean different amounts on different sized syringes.
On a 1 mL syringe, the longer lines are marked with numbers for each 0.1 mL.
The short lines measure 0.02 mL. (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08)
Example: 0.24 mL: Fill a 1 mL syringe with medicine until the top of the plunger is at the 0.24 line.
See each arrow on each syringe for where to draw up the medicine.
Example: 0.85 mL: There is no 0.85 line. Fill a 1 mL syringe until the top of the plunger is between the 0.84 and 0.86 lines.
On a 3 mL syringe, the longer lines are marked with numbers for each 0.5 and 1 mL.
The short lines measure 0.1 mL. (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9)
Example: 2.8 mL: Fill a 3 mL syringe with medicine until the top of the plunger is at 2.8.
On 5, 10 and 12 mL syringes, the longer lines are marked for each 1 mL.
The short lines measure 0.2 mL. (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8)
Example: 6.5 mL: There is no 6.5 line. Fill a 10 mL syringe until the top of the plunger is between the 6.4 and 6.6 lines.
Important safety tips:
An open bottle of medicine is dangerous. Keep it covered. This will stop the medicine from getting spilled and keep it safe from others.
Throw any caps from a syringe in the trash. Your child could choke on it.