Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Mothers Attending Tertiary Care Hospital

OBJECTIVES: To determine knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending tertiary care hospitals.  METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Pediatrics in Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. A total of 162 mothers were selected who were practicing breastfeeding of ages between 20 to 35 years, having a full-term baby of age up to 6 months old. The data is collected through a pre-planned questionnaire and then was analyzed using statistics version 24.0. The duration of the study was from 1st June 2020 to 30th October 2020. RESULTS: The results showed that no significant association was found between age groups, socio-economic status regarding knowledge, attitude, and practice (p>0.05). However, there was a significant difference between knowledge, attitude, and practice with respect to educational status (p<0.05). 123 (73.21%) mothers had unsatisfactory; whereas 39 (24.07%) mothers had excellent knowledge regarding breastfeeding. 39 (27.07%) of breast-feeding mothers had a positive attitude towards breastfeeding. 123 (73.21%) women showed a negative response regarding the practice of breastfeeding. CONCLUSION: Most of the mothers didn’t have adequate knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) practice. As a result, it is suggested that media can be used as a medium to educate women about the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)

Positivity of Lumbar Puncture for Acute Bacterial Meningitis among Children Presenting with First Febrile Seizure

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of lumber puncture-proven acute bacterial meningitis among children with fever and seizures of first onset.METHODOLOGY From March 2020 to March 2021, a hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the paediatrics department of Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar. The sample size for a total of 342 people was estimated using WHO software. The study included all children who had first-onset febrile seizures through OPD and the emergency department. All children underwent lumber punctures using a stringent aseptic procedure, and the hospital laboratory received the samples to look for bacterial meningitis. On a pre-made Proforma, details including name, age, and gender were entered. The gathered data were input into the computer for additional SPSS analysis (version 23).RESULTS Most individuals were male and were lies in the 21-40 months of age group. Mean weight and length/height were evaluated, respectively. The majority had a history of 6-10 days of disease duration. Bacterial meningitis was found significantly (p<0.05) associated with age, gender and neurological deficit, while non-significantly (p>0.05) associated with the duration of diseases.CONCLUSION All children between the ages of 6 months and 60 months who presented with episodes of fever and seizures were found to have a statistically significant (p<0.05) association found among bacterial meningitis and age groups

Hypovitaminosis D Causing Idiopathic Musculoskeletal Pain in Children

OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of hypovitaminosis D in children presenting with Idiopathic musculoskeletal pain IMSP). METHODOLOGY The cross-sectional research was carried out at Peshawar’s Hayatabad Medical Complex’s Department of Pediatrics. The study duration was 6 months. The study comprised 151 patients with non-specific musculoskeletal pain who were tested for vitamin D levels to diagnose hypovitaminosis. RESULTS The age range of the participants was 3 to 15 years with a male predominance of 72.8%. The sample’s average the weight was above the 25 percentile. Hypovitaminosis D was found in 23.2%. Decreased sun exposure was documented in 82.85% of cases with hypovitaminosis. Hypocalcemia, hypophosphatemia and increased alkaline phosphatase were documented in 71.4%, 11.4% and 42.8% participants respectively with hypovitaminosis. CONCLUSION Hypovitaminosis D Is one of the risk factors for non-specific musculoskeletal pain but the current study revealed only 23.2% of participants had hypovitaminosis and inadequate sun exposure was a major risk factor for hypovitaminosis