Background Hospital pharmacists face many daily challenges including supplying medicinal products for children. Lack of paediatric drugs encourages hospital pharmacists to act. The University of Debrecen has 150 paediatric beds.

Purpose To present our practice regarding paediatric care and cooperation with paediatricians.

Materials and methods Data from the past years were collected, documenting both the routine work and special requests of paediatricians.

Results Requests have become routine practice. Increasing numbers of divided powders can be observed. Nowadays other drug forms have reappeared such as suppositories, enemas and solutions. Self-printed labels had to be introduced on all sachets in order to achieve safe identification. Some examples of special requests: Smith-Lemli-Opitz (SLO) syndrome: The children need accurate doses of cholesterol. There was no available product in Hungary. Divided powders were developed in conjunction with the physician. The recommended dose can be mixed into the meal. Absorbing sufficient fat-soluble vitamins is crucial in cystic fibrosis and SLO. Oral vitamin E was not available for children in Hungary. Oil-based drops were developed that can be dosed easily and can be mixed into the meal.

Conclusions The problems of paediatric drugs are complex. Individual treatment is very important in children because of the special diseases, or concomitant diseases affecting other organs at the same time. Besides this the dosage also can differ according to age and body weight. These goals all can be fulfilled with the help of a hospital pharmacist. Correct labelling is essential for drug safety.

No conflict of interest.