Infant Teething Research Articles

Mothers\' belief about infant teething in Nnewi, South Eastern Nigeria

Objective: To ascertain the symptoms ascribed to, and remedies given for teething in infants by mothers in Nnewi South eastern Nigeria. Methodology: A pre-tested, open-ended questionnaire was administered to 161 consecutive mothers attending the paediatric outpatient and the infant welfare clinics of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Nigeria. Data collected included mothers\' educational attainment; attendance to antenatal clinics, infant welfare clinics; talks on teething during those clinic sessions; the stage of development and the type of feeding at the time of teething; the symptoms attributed to teething; the remedies applied and the source of their prescription. Analysis was done using SSPS statistical package. Results: All the mothers recruited for the study had basic education. Seventy-seven mothers (47.8%) had secondary school education, while 18 (11.2%) and 66 (41.0%) had attained primary and tertiary levels of education, respectively. The commonest symptom was fever, while symptom-free teething was noted by 5.0% of mothers. ‘Teething powder\' was the most frequently utilized remedy (44.1%). Other mothers (respondents\' peers) and their mothers (infants\' grandmothers) constituted the main sources of prescription of the remedies; 41.1% and 31.3%, respectively. The majority (64.0%) of the babies were on complementary feeds and at the sitting-up and crawling stages. There was no significant difference in the beliefs or remedies given by mothers of differing educational levels. Conclusion: There is need for well packaged health education on teething as a natural process at every available health delivery outlet in order to correct the misconceptions about teething, eradicate the myths associated with it, treat infants appropriately when they are sick and avoid unnecessary expenditure on drugs. Key Words: Mothers\' belief, Teething Sahel Medical Journal Vol.7(3) 2004: 84-87

Parents’ and medical personnel's beliefs about infant teething

Many symptoms are attributed to teething. Little evidence exists to support these beliefs, despite their implications on clinical management. This study attempted to investigate parental and medical personnel's beliefs about teething. The study was conducted by means of a questionnaire, submitted to 55 pediatricians and 130 nurses. A parent survey was conducted simultaneously. We evaluated 462 questionnaires. An association of teeth eruption with infant morbidity was believed to exist by 76% of the responders, mostly by parents and nurses, and less so by physicians. Irritability, fever, and loose stools/diarrhea were believed to be the most common symptoms associated to teeth eruption. We conclude that almost all parents, the majority of nurses, and many physicians believe that teething is associated with the appearance of symptoms, most of which are minor and relate to discomfort rather than physical illness, but a substantial minority still ascribes potentially serious symptoms to teething.

Mothers′ belief about infant teething in Nnewi, south eastern Nigeria

Mothers′ belief about infant teething in Nnewi, south eastern Nigeria

Symptoms associated with infant teething

Symptoms associated with infant teething

Teething and tooth eruption in infants: A cohort study.

Many symptoms are attributed to teething in infants. There is little evidence to support these beliefs, despite their implications for clinical management. We investigated relationships between tooth eruption, fever, and teething symptoms. Prospective cohort study. Twenty-one children 6 to 24 months old attending 3 suburban long-day care centers >/=3 days/week. Measures. 1) Daily temperature recording and examination of alveolar ridges for tooth eruption (dental therapist). 2) Daily questionnaires-symptoms over preceding 24 hours (staff and parents independently). 3) Final questionnaire-beliefs/experiences related to teething (parents). Definitions. Eruption day-the first day a tooth could be seen or felt. Non-toothdays-more than 28 days clear of any eruption day. Toothdays-the 5 days preceding eruption days. Data were collected for 236 toothdays and 895 non-toothdays pertaining to 90 teeth. Child temperatures were similar on toothdays and non-toothdays (36.21 vs 36.18, paired t test). Logistic regression adjusted for age did not show an association between toothdays and temperature (odds ratio [OR] = 1.35, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.80, 2.27 for high fever; OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 0.48, 3.77 for low fever). Logistic regression models allowing for within-child cluster effects and age were fitted to daily staff and parent reports of mood, wellness/illness, drooling/dribbling, sleep, diarrhea, strong diapers, red cheeks, and rashes/flushing. Only parent-reported (but not staff-reported) loose stools were significantly associated with tooth eruption (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1. 26, 2.73). When the toothday definition was varied to 10 days preceding or 5 days surrounding tooth eruption, this single significant association was no longer apparent (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 0.98, 2.05 and OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 0.97, 2.21, respectively). All parents retrospectively reported that their own children had suffered a range of teething symptoms. This study did not confirm the expected strong associations between tooth eruption and a range of teething symptoms in children 6 to 30 months old, although we cannot rule out the possibility that weak associations may exist (Type II error). These findings contrast with strong parent and professional beliefs to the contrary. Such beliefs may preclude optimal management of common patterns of illness and behavior in young children.teething, infants, symptoms, tooth eruption, illness.

Symptoms associated with infant teething: a prospective study.

Studies of infant teething have been retrospective, small, or conducted on institutionalized infants. To conduct a large, prospective study of healthy infants to determine which symptoms may be attributed to teething and to attempt to predict tooth emergence from an infant's symptoms. Prospective cohort. Setting. Clinic-based pediatric group practice. One hundred twenty-five consecutive well children of consenting Cleveland Clinic employees. Parents daily recorded 2 tympanic temperatures, presence or absence of 18 symptoms, and all tooth eruptions in their infants, from the 4-month well-child visit until the child turned 1 year old. Daily symptom data were available for 19 422 child-days and 475 tooth eruptions. Symptoms were only significantly more frequent in the 4 days before a tooth emergence, the day of the emergence, and 3 days after it, so this 8-day window was defined as the teething period. Increased biting, drooling, gum-rubbing, sucking, irritability, wakefulness, ear-rubbing, facial rash, decreased appetite for solid foods, and mild temperature elevation were all statistically associated with teething. Congestion, sleep disturbance, stool looseness, increased stool number, decreased appetite for liquids, cough, rashes other than facial rashes, fever over 102 degrees F, and vomiting were not significantly associated with tooth emergence. Although many symptoms were associated with teething, no symptom occurred in >35% of teething infants, and no symptom occurred >20% more often in teething than in nonteething infants. No teething child had a fever of 104 degrees F and none had a life-threatening illness. Many mild symptoms previously thought to be associated with teething were found in this study to be temporally associated with teething. However, no symptom cluster could reliably predict the imminent emergence of a tooth. Before caregivers attribute any infants' signs or symptoms of a potentially serious illness to teething, other possible causes must be ruled out.teething, tooth eruption, teeth, deciduous dentition.

Parent beliefs about infant teething: A survey of Australian parents

Parents ascribe many infant symptoms to teething, despite little evidence to support such an attribution. We report current parental beliefs about teething and its management in a suburban Australian setting. A written questionnaire was given to all English-speaking parents consecutively attending infant hearing testing sessions in one Melbourne municipality between August and October 1997. Approximately 90% of Victorian infants attend these sessions. Parents of 92 infants (mean age 9.9 months) completed questionnaires (97% response rate). Only one believed that teething causes no problems. Most (70-85%) believed that teething causes fever, pain, irritability, sleep disturbance, mouthing/biting, drooling and red cheeks; 35-55% reported nappy rash, 'sooking', ear pulling, feeding problems, runny nose, loose stools, and infections; and a few (< 15%) reported smelly urine, constipation, colic or convulsions. Symptoms reported for a parent's own infant correlated almost perfectly with symptoms believed to be experienced by infants generally (r = 0.97, P < 0.001). Amount of infant distress when teething correlated with more 'difficult' infant temperament (r = 0.25, P < 0.05), and longer duration of symptoms per tooth correlated with parent distress (r = 0.26, P < 0. 05). Paracetamol (60%) and topical analgesia (55%) were commonly used remedies. Parents diagnose teething more by the presence of 'teething symptoms' (65%) than by palpable (43%) or visible (36%) tooth eruption. Teething is a distressing but ill-defined phenomenon reported by almost all parents of young children, and most use some form of medication to manage it. Most symptoms are minor and relate to discomfort rather than physical illness, but a substantial minority still ascribes potentially serious symptoms to teething.

Soothing the breakthrough with calgel infant teething gel

Soothing the breakthrough with calgel infant teething gel

Preparations for infants’ pain

Alan Nathan advises on OTC medicines for babies. 2. Products available to relieve infant teething, colic, fever, pruritis and pain

WHAT MOTHERS READ ABOUT TEETHING IN 1845

Many mothers in the 1840s read a manual on child care written by Dr. J. W. Holman who was both a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society and of The Boston Medical Association. This is what Dr. Holman told his readers about infant teething.1 Beside the general febrile symptoms attendant upon the teething of children, many other troublesome and sometimes fatal complaints follow. Much may be done for the safety and comfort of children at this critical period, by mothers and nurses. If at this period the child is disposed to looseness, as is often the case, all kinds of food, and the various drinks that are calculated to increase this dependent or secondary trouble, should be carefully avoided; cold water, or mild before it is boiled, cider, spruce beer, and the like should not be allowed. Vegetables, such as beets, turnips, apples, potatoes, and fruits should be withheld. On the contrary, let the drink be prepared from some bark or herb that is gently astringent or binding and let the food be boiled milk thickened with wheat flour, dry crackers, and of such articles as will not tend to augment the diarrhea. But if there be no inclination to looseness, but symptoms of fever and nervous irritation, let acid and laxative drinks be given, and the food may be of a spare and loosening character. Rice, with milk or molasses, tapioca, sago, arrow root, jellies, etc., are good articles of food, if the child be weaned. If the child is at the breast, the nourishment received from the mother is perhaps the best that can be given.

The treatment of teething in infants. A review.

The treatment of teething in infants. A review.

TEETH AND THE EUSTACHIAN TUBE

To the Editor:— The filler inThe Journal, July 30, page 1470, begs for comment lest misinformation be perpetuated. We refer to the quotation from MacBeth ( Proc Roy Soc Med , March, 1960). MacBeth deduces that earache of teething infants is often due to a minor otitis media. The pink drumhead occurs too often to be ignored and this may mean an otosalpingitis of lymphborne origin. It should be borne in mind that infection does not generally accompany teething in infants, that the teeth cannot be infected before being erupted, and that they have not yet had a chance to become decayed, let alone become infected, in an infant. MacBeth commits another error in deducing that periodontal sepsis, by which it is presumed is meant periodontitis or periodontosis, causes deafness in the adult. Were this so, a very high percentage of adult patients would be deaf, as both these conditions are

An Account of the Weather and Disease of South Carolina

Lionel Chalmers of Charleston, South Carolina, came nearer to being a pediatric specialist than any other physician of the American colonial period. Although Douglass had written on scarlet fever, Bard on diphtheria, and Rush on infantile diarrhea, Chalmers not only published his observations on these diseases but also covered a much wider range of pediatric subjects. He appears to have been among the first in this country to appreciate that rickets did not include all bony deformities, that "nine-day fits" of infants was the same disease as tetanus of adults, and that thrush was not usually a primary cause of death. He also wrote on infant feeding, weaning, teething, worms, convulsions, impetigo and obstructive laryngitis. He was most original and perhaps at his best in his descriptions of whooping cough and mumps.