Association Of Fever And Diarrhea With Infant Teething Among Mothers Attending Two Health Centres In Nairobi

Abstract

Introduction: Many global communities associate infant teething with diarrhea and fever. The perception that infant teething is a cause of pain and discomfort is often shared by both mothers/care- givers and healthcare workers and influences the choice of remedies used for the management of infant teething. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among mothers presenting at two health centres in Nairobi in November-December 2014. Mothers who presented to the health centres with infants aged 0-3 months were sequentially recruited and screened to establish if they had older children. Only mothers who had older surviving children were included in the study. An interviewer administered closed ended questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was entered into IBM ® SPSS ® Statistics Version 20 and analysed for frequencies, while chi-square test of significance was used for categorical variables (confidence level set at 95%,a < 0.05). Results: A total of 399 mothers satisfied the inclusion criteria and their age ranged from 19 - 48 years (Mean 28.25, SD 4.59). A total of 377 (94.5%) mothers responded to the question on whether they perceived fever to be associated with teething, while 376 (94.2%) responded to the question on whether diarrhea was associated with teething. Majority of mothers associated infant teething with fever 288(76.4%) and diarrhea 278(73.9%). Mothers association of infant teething with diarrhea and fever did not differ significantly according to mothers age (p=0.527 and p=0.282) and the highest level of education attained (p=0.093 and p=0.573), Mothers’ association of diarrhea with infant teething different significantly with mothers employment status (p=0.009). More than half 17(55.2%) of mothers whose children had experienced diarrhea in the preceding two weeks sought treatment at health facilities, while 3(10%) used home-made remedies. Slightly below half 14(44.8%) of mothers whose children experienced fever sought treatment at the health centres. Majority of mothers 152(67%) consulted the nurse at the health clinic while 34.5% of mothers utilized commercially available teething powders and/or gels during infant teething. Conclusion: Mothers knowledge on the association of infant teething with diarrhea and fever could impact on their health seeking behavior.