Self-medication for infants with colic in Lagos, Nigeria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infantile colic is a self-limiting condition that is distributed worldwide. It is often misdiagnosed as an organic disease for which an infant is admitted to the hospital. Many studies have described the aetiopathogenesis, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management of colic but none has evaluated self-medication for infants with colic. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the knowledge of Nigerian mothers about colic, their home-based management, extent of self-medication for the infants with colic and the types of medicines involved.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>It is a prospective study conducted at the vaccination clinics of 20 primary health care centres, each from different Local Government Areas in Lagos, Nigeria. Eight hundred mothers that brought their infants for vaccination between April and September, 2006 were interviewed with open-and close-ended questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six hundred and eighty three (85.4%) mothers claimed they had a good knowledge of colic. Incessant and excessive cry was the main clinical feature of colic identified by 430(62.9%) mothers. Three hundred and seventy eight (67.7%) infants were treated by self-medication, 157 (28.1%) sought medical intervention and 17 (3.1%) were treated at a traditional birth attendant home. Herbal medicines constituted 51.8% of the self-medicated medicines, of which 48 (26.2%) were "Ororo Ogiri". Nospamin^®(49.5%) and Gripe water^®(43.0%) were the two frequently prescribed and self-medicated medicines for infants with colic.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Nigerian mothers are deficient in their knowledge of colic. Self-medication was the most frequently used home-based intervention. Health education would appear necessary to improve parental management of this self-limiting condition.</p

An infant‐led approach to complementary feeding is positively associated with language development

The timing and strategy with which parents first introduce their infants to solid foods may be an important predictor of subsequent developmental outcomes. Recent years have seen a decline in the prevalence of traditional parent‐led feeding of soft, puréed food and a rise in the prevalence of infant‐led complementary feeding. Although there has been some research espousing the benefits of infant‐led complementary feeding for improving food fussiness and self‐regulation, there has been little exploration of this approach that may impact on other developmental outcomes in children. The current study explores whether aspects of the infant‐led approach, specifically the child eating unaided and consuming finger foods and eating with the family, are related to child language outcomes. One hundred thirty one parents of children aged 8–24 months completed questionnaires about their approach to complementary feeding, their current feeding practices, their child's experiences with family foods and child language comprehension/production. The findings suggest that an approach to complementary feeding which promotes infant autonomy in feeding (i.e., eating finger foods rather than puréed foods) and consuming more family foods is related to more advanced child language production and comprehension. Specifically, the prevalence of eating family foods mediated the relationship between eating unaided at the onset of the complementary feeding period and later language outcomes. This study is the first to find a significant relationship between different approaches to introducing solid foods and child language outcomes and these findings highlight the potential for different complementary feeding approaches to influence behaviour beyond mealtimes