If you have any questions, call your pharmacist. While not designed for administration of liquid medications to infants and children, syringes like these are often available to consumers. When in place, the protective plastic cap appears to be an integral, yet inconspicuous, part of the device. The plastic cap is simply intended to be a protective barrier to the syringes nozzle. Figure A shows how a liquid medication can be drawn up into a hypodermic syringe without removal of the protective cap.
Liquid can easily enter the syringe nozzle through clearance around the cap.
Figure B shows the loading of liquid medication into the barrel of the syringe after removal of the plunger, with the protective nozzle cap still in place. In either case, the potential exists for administering liquid medication to a child without first removing the protective plastic cap. The cap on most of the commercially available hypodermic syringes is not airtight. There has been at least one report of a near-fatal aspiration of one of these syringe caps.