Mothers Knowledge and Home Management of Nappy Rash in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Nappy rash is thought to affect up to a third of nappy-wearing babies at any given time. It is not a disease but just an irritation of the skin which when severe, becomes painful and distressing for the infant, and a source of great anxiety for caregivers. This study evaluated the knowledge and home management of nappy rash amongst mothers in Port Harcourt
Methods: A cross-sectional study of mothers presenting with children aged 2 years and below to the Paediatric Outpatient Clinics of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. A structured, anonymous, self- administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on biodata, awareness information, response and practices. Data were analysed using SPSS version 17.0.
Results: A total of 141 mothers participated in the study. Seventy-five (53%) of them had post-secondary education. Disposable diapers only were used by 45% of respondents, 10% used cloth napkin only. Level of education significantly affected type of diaper used (P=0.002). Baby's diaper was changed 3 times during the day and once at night by 41%. Most mothers (80%) regularly applied Vaseline on baby's bottom, 14% applied powder. In the preceding 6 months, 34% of babies had nappy rash with the number of episodes varying from 1 to 5. Most respondents (73%) applied anti-fungal cream to the rash, only 10% exposed the bottom.
Conclusion: Knowledge of, and home treatment of diaper rash is poor amongst our mothers. There is need for awareness /enlightenment campaigns about skin care of young children targeted at mothers.
Downloads
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. In line with our open access policy and the Creative Commons Attribution License policy authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations. While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
TNHJ also supports open access archiving of articles published in the journal after three months of publication. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g, in institutional repositories or on their website) within the stated period, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). All requests for permission for open access archiving outside this period should be sent to the editor via email to editor@tnhjph.com.