Mothers’ misconception and traditional practises towards infant teething’ symptomsin Khartoum

Abstract

Background: Teething is a natural process which creates little discomfort. Mothers in Sudan, regardless of their educational levels have strong and deeply rooted believes that infant teething, causes many medical problems to infants; despite no evidence to support these belief and misconceptions. Some traditional practices for relieving teething’s symptoms have caused serious harm and even death. Objective: The aims of this study were to (i) Investigate the mothers’ beliefs about teething signs and symptoms in Sudan. (ii) Investigate the mothers' practices used to alleviate teething troubles. Methodology and Results: A cross-sectional survey involved 300 mothers presented at primary health care paediatric unit in Khartoum, using questionnaire. More than 95% of the respondents thought that babies can experience medical problems as a result of teething. The commonest medical problems perceived to be associated with teething were diarrhoea (80.3%), fever (86.6%), and loss of appetite (75%) and drooling of saliva (96%) Conclusions: This study showed a common misconception and myths about teething among mothers. Mothers should be better educated about the teething process and the proper management of teething troubles by the dental health care providers.