Teething myths among nursing mothers in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Teething has over the years been associated with complains of systemic symptoms from parents, and at times are over treated by health-care professionals. This study seeks to determine common teething complaints reported by nursing mothers. Materials and Methods: This study was multicenter involving 224 nursing mothers. It was cross-sectional and questionnaire-based relevant information collected were: The socio demographic characteristics, knowledge of teething and myths associated with teething, and the attitude of nursing mothers toward the use of teething remedies. Results: Two hundred and three (90.62%) of them believed teething caused symptoms; common complaints that were attributed to teething by mothers were diarrhea, vomiting, increased salivation; however, fever was the predominant complaint, and their parents were the most common source of information on teething in 50% of them, while only a mother (0.4%) was informed on the process of teething at the hospital. Furthermore, the number of children did not affect the desire to seek for medical care for teething symptoms. Common remedies used were as follows: 59 (26.3%) nursing mothers used teething syrup, 43 (19.2%) nursing mothers used teething powder, 16 (7.2%) of them used traditional herbs while 8(3.6%) of them used multiple preparations; however 91 (40.6%) of them did not use any remedy. One hundred and seven (47.8%) of the mothers believed that these remedies worked, 67 (29.9%) of them disagreed while 50 (22.3%) were not sure of their efficacy. Conclusion: Parents should be educated on normal expectations of the teething process; and not to undermine the seriousness of illnesses erroneously attributed to teething.

Keywords

• Myths
• Nigerian nursing mothers
• teething