KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF CARETAKERS AND HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TOWARD TEETHING IN INFANTS
Objective and methods: a prospective questionnaire based study on 71 parents (caretakers) of consecutive children treated at the Pediatric Department, Hue Central Hospital and on 47 health professionals at the department was conducted from September until December 2009 to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practices of the caretakers, nurses and postgraduated doctors toward teething in infants. Results: Most responders believed that teething causes fever, irritability, feeding problems, drooling, biting, sleep disturbance, swollen gums, crying, lose of appetite for solids; and fever over 38oC was also believed to be associated with teething. The mean eruption time of the first tooth was from 6 months. Most caretakers had normal attitude to manifestations ascribed to teething (54.9%). The most common management to symptoms attributed to teething included increased breast-feeding, oral paracetamol, increased fluid supplying and physician consulting. Conclusion: Correct knowledge to teething in infants need to be educated for parents (caretakers) and even for health professionals. Key words: knowledge, attitude, practices, teething, infants.