Attitudes and treatment practices of mothers regarding teething

ABSTRACT

Background: Generally, mothers are saddled with early childcare responsibilities. Therefore, their attitude, practice, and care toward events occurring in early childhood including teething are important. Objective: To evaluate the attitudes and treatment practices of mothers regarding teething, Materials and Methods: The study is a descriptive cross-sectional survey. A systematic random sampling technique was utilized in selecting the participants for this study. Socio-demographics, attitudes, and treatment practices of mothers regarding teething were obtained via an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire. IBM SPSS, Version 21.0. was used for data analysis. The level of significance was set at p= 0.05 Results: A total of 120 mothers participated in the study. The participants in the age group of 20-30 years were in the majority. A majority (86.7%; n=104) strongly agreed that mothers have a role to play in the management of teething. On the other hand, less than half (41.7%; n=50) strongly agreed that doctors have a role to play in the management of teething. Of the 103 mothers who practice self-medication, over 85% (85.4%; n=87) use teething syrup, 63.1% (n=65) sometimes use antibiotics, 80.6% (n=82) use analgesics, and 68.0% (n=70) always use herbal mixtures. The study further revealed a negative grade for attitude and a fair grade for practice Conclusion: Though the attitude level of mothers towards teething in this study was more negative, their treatment practices were nonetheless fair. We recommend educational programs that aim to improve the observed areas of negative attitudes and practices of the study population.