Lessons · Pharmacy · teaspoonfuls and tablespoonfuls in millilitres
Kitchen measures, written in millilitres
A teaspoonful is 5 mL, a tablespoonful is 15 mL and a fluid ounce is 30 mL, and the label always carries the millilitres.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A parent at the window is holding a spoon from the cutlery drawer. That spoon is not a measuring device, and the gap between what it holds and 5 mL is the whole reason the label says millilitres and the bag has an oral syringe in it.
How to think about it
Translate the household word into millilitres first, then do the arithmetic in millilitres and stay there. Never convert back at the end: the label gets the millilitres.
Worked example
1 teaspoonful = 5 mLThe conversion every oral liquid label is built on.
1 tablespoonful = 15 mLThree teaspoonfuls.
1 fluid ounce = 30 mLSix teaspoonfuls, and the size bottles are sold in.
A 6 fl oz bottle = 6 x 30 mL = 180 mLOunces on the box, millilitres on the label.
Your turn
A bottle is sold as 8 fluid ounces. Write its volume in millilitres.
8 x 30 mL = mL
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating a kitchen teaspoon as 5 mL. Real ones run anywhere from about 3 mL to about 7 mL, which on a three-times-a-day sig is a different amount of drug every single day.