Half of the errors occurred in children younger than one year, and 90 percent involved children under the age of six months.

Newborns and infants with congenital heart disease - which occurs in four out of 1,000 US babies - are at high risk for such errors since heart medications are most commonly prescribed for them, researchers said.

The other half of dosing errors occurred in patients between the ages of one and six years.

The investigators say certain medication errors in children can be reduced or prevented by computerizing drug orders with built-in double-and triple-checking mechanisms that reduce the likelihood for miscalculation or misinterpretation.

These findings were published in Paediatrics.