Introduction: Many global communities associate infant teething with diarrhea and fever. The
perception that infant teething is a cause of pain and discomfort is often shared by both mothers/caregivers
and healthcare workers and influences the choice of remedies used for the management of
infant teething.
Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among mothers
presenting at two health centres in Nairobi in November-December 2014. Mothers who presented to
the health centres with infants aged 0-3 months were sequentially recruited and screened to establish
if they had older children. Only mothers who had older surviving children were included in the study.
An interviewer administered closed ended questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was
entered into IBM® SPSS® Statistics Version 20 and analysed for frequencies, while chi-square test of
significance was used for categorical variables (confidence level set at 95%,a<0.05).
Results: A total of 399 mothers satisfied the inclusion criteria and their age ranged from 19 - 48
years (Mean 28.25, SD 4.59). A total of 377 (94.5%) mothers responded to the question on whether
they perceived fever to be associated with teething, while 376 (94.2%) responded to the question on
whether diarrhea was associated with teething. Majority of mothers associated infant teething with
fever 288(76.4%) and diarrhea 278(73.9%). Mothers association of infant teething with diarrhea and
fever did not differ significantly according to mothers age (p=0.527 and p=0.282) and the highest
level of education attained (p=0.093 and p=0.573), Mothers’ association of diarrhea with infant
teething different significantly with mothers employment status (p=0.009). More than half 17(55.2%)
of mothers whose children had experienced diarrhea in the preceding two weeks sought treatment at
health facilities, while 3(10%) used home-made remedies. Slightly below half 14(44.8%) of mothers
whose children experienced fever sought treatment at the health centres. Majority of mothers
152(67%) consulted the nurse at the health clinic while 34.5% of mothers utilized commercially
available teething powders and/or gels during infant teething.
Conclusion: Mothers knowledge on the association of infant teething with diarrhea and fever could
impact on their health seeking behavior.