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The BNF for Children 2013-2014 (BNFC) 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.

Recommendations in the BNF for Children have been constructed on the basis of authoritative sources, emerging evidence and best practice guidelines. The content has been carefully validated by a network of paediatric experts and the process is overseen by a paediatric formulary committee.

Unique benefits
-Shares the familiar 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.

International relevance
BNF and BNFC are the gold standard of drug information in English-speaking countries. They are used for constructing national formularies in other countries and to support regulatory work. They provide essential information when treating patients who have been prescribed medicines in the UK. Unlike many other local alternatives, both resources are completely independent from pharmaceutical industry influence with guidance that is based on best practice and real life evidence.

The BNF for Children 2013-2014 has been revised and revalidated to reflect changes in product availability, emerging safety concerns and shifts in clinical practice.

Some significant updates include:
-Changes to the criteria that define paracetamol overdose included in Emergency Treatment of Poisoning
-NICE guidance on the use of omalizumab for severe persistent allergic asthma in children 6 years and over
-Advice on prescribing adrenaline auto-injectors for anaphylaxis by brand name only to ensure patients and carers receive the device they have been trained to use
-Important advice on the prescribing of caffeine; caffeine doses are now expressed in terms of caffeine citrate only
-Revised drug treatment of septicaemia in neonates to take account of the NICE guidelineAntibiotics for Early-onset ---Neonatal Infection (August 2012)
-NICE guidance on when to prescribe tobramycin by dry powder inhalation for pseudomonal lung infection in cystic fibrosis
-Updated doses of rifampicin and ethambutol in the standard regimen for the treatment of tuberculosis
-MHRA/CHM advice on prescribing oral tacrolimus products by brand name only to minimise the risk of inadvertent switching between products.

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.

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