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Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething

Background: Teething is a physiological process experienced by all children. However, many unrelated illnesses are blamed on teething. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess mothers’ beliefs toward teething and to investigate the practices preferred by mothers to alleviate symptoms that migh...

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Autor principal: Yousif, Miami K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: HBKU Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7724255/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329998
http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2020.32
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author Yousif, Miami K.
author_facet Yousif, Miami K.
author_sort Yousif, Miami K.
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description Background: Teething is a physiological process experienced by all children. However, many unrelated illnesses are blamed on teething. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess mothers’ beliefs toward teething and to investigate the practices preferred by mothers to alleviate symptoms that might accompany the teething process. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Basra. The study population includes mothers of young children aged (6–30) months who had at least one erupted primary tooth, and who had no history of medical or systemic disease that might affect teething. Two hundred mothers of different age groups and educational backgrounds responded to a questionnaire that included information on the child's age and birth order, mother's age, level of education, occupation, number of children, beliefs toward teething symptoms, and the practices preferred to relieve the attributed symptoms. Data has been presented in numbers and percentages, the Chi-square test was performed where appropriate, and a p value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: All (100%) participants attributed at least one symptom or sign to the teething process. The most common symptoms reported were fever (70%), diarrhea (68.5%), and sleep disturbance (63.5%). Sixty-eight percent of mothers believed teething remedies were effective; only 10 (5%) did not give any treatment. Over half (62%) gave medications, such as antipyretics, antibiotics, and antidiarrheal agents. Some used teething gels (29%), pacifiers (50%), gum massage (22%), and hard foods such as biscuits and carrots (43.5%). Mothers of various educational levels reported attributed symptoms, and the result was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Mothers of a firstborn child were found to have a higher tendency to attribute symptoms to teething than those who had previous experience with children (p < 0.05). Discussion and conclusions: Teething myths and misconceptions are common among mothers. The study identified a significant number of doctors, dentists, and pharmacists still attribute many symptoms and signs to teething despite the lack of supporting evidence. Therefore, the findings of this study highlight the need for continuous medical education and nationwide prospective studies to eradicate these false beliefs.
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spelling pubmed-77242552020-12-15 Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething Yousif, Miami K. Qatar Med J Research Article Background: Teething is a physiological process experienced by all children. However, many unrelated illnesses are blamed on teething. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess mothers’ beliefs toward teething and to investigate the practices preferred by mothers to alleviate symptoms that might accompany the teething process. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Basra. The study population includes mothers of young children aged (6–30) months who had at least one erupted primary tooth, and who had no history of medical or systemic disease that might affect teething. Two hundred mothers of different age groups and educational backgrounds responded to a questionnaire that included information on the child's age and birth order, mother's age, level of education, occupation, number of children, beliefs toward teething symptoms, and the practices preferred to relieve the attributed symptoms. Data has been presented in numbers and percentages, the Chi-square test was performed where appropriate, and a p value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: All (100%) participants attributed at least one symptom or sign to the teething process. The most common symptoms reported were fever (70%), diarrhea (68.5%), and sleep disturbance (63.5%). Sixty-eight percent of mothers believed teething remedies were effective; only 10 (5%) did not give any treatment. Over half (62%) gave medications, such as antipyretics, antibiotics, and antidiarrheal agents. Some used teething gels (29%), pacifiers (50%), gum massage (22%), and hard foods such as biscuits and carrots (43.5%). Mothers of various educational levels reported attributed symptoms, and the result was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Mothers of a firstborn child were found to have a higher tendency to attribute symptoms to teething than those who had previous experience with children (p < 0.05). Discussion and conclusions: Teething myths and misconceptions are common among mothers. The study identified a significant number of doctors, dentists, and pharmacists still attribute many symptoms and signs to teething despite the lack of supporting evidence. Therefore, the findings of this study highlight the need for continuous medical education and nationwide prospective studies to eradicate these false beliefs. HBKU Press 2020-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7724255/ /pubmed/33329998 http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2020.32 Text en © 2020 Yousif, licensee HBKU Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yousif, Miami K.
Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
title Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
title_full Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
title_fullStr Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
title_full_unstemmed Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
title_short Mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
title_sort mothers’ false beliefs and myths associated with teething
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7724255/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329998
http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2020.32
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