MALAYSIA: A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy was given a prescription to take four antibiotic tablets four times a day - a dosage considered high even for an adult, Kosmo! reported.

The boy, Ashraff Hateimi, was given the prescription to take 16 tablets of Cloxacillin (250mg) a day by a doctor in a government hospital in Kajang.

His father, Ahmad Noor Zaini Mohd Amin, 36, said he found the prescription "hard to believe" when he had it filled at the hospital pharmacy.

He had brought his son to the hospital after Ashraff fell from his bed and cut his forehead. The wound required three stitches.

"I was worried that they had given my son the wrong prescription."

"But when I asked, they (the hospital staff) rudely replied that the medication was based on the doctor's slip," he told the tabloid on Sunday.

Not satisfied with the explanation, Ahmad Noor Zaini brought his son to a private clinic near his home for a second opinion.

"The doctor was shocked with the amount of antibiotics prescribed for my son, which he said was also too much for an adult," he said.

"He said an overdose of medication could cause complications."

Another government hospital doctor, Dr Yasrul Izad Abu Bakar, said the appropriate dose for children was just one tablet of the antibiotic taken four times a day.