Childhood Convulsion: Inquiry about the Concerns and Home Management among Mothers in Tegbesun, a Periurban Community in Ilorin, Nigeria

Background. The fear and panic felt by most parents when their child convulsed made them apply all sorts of management. Objective. This study evaluated the concerns and home management of childhood convulsions among mothers in Tegbesun, a periurban community in Ilorin, Nigeria. Methods. A ten-week cross-sectional study comprising 500 mothers interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Results. Fear of death was the commonest concern (450, 90%) among mothers. For a witnessed convulsion, the majority took the child to the hospital (414, 82.8%). Cow’s urine concoction (74, 87.1%) was the most common item administered to a convulsing child. Putting the hand and/or a spoon into the mouth of the convulsing child was the commonest unwholesome practice (74, 61.2%). None of the subjects safely put the convulsing child on his/her side. Conclusions. Maternal concerns are precursors of mismanagement of childhood convulsions, and health education was undertaken at the end of the study. 1. Introduction Convulsion is defined as a paroxysmal involuntary disturbance of brain function that manifests as an impairment or loss of consciousness, abnormal motor activity, behavioral abnormalities, sensory disturbance, or autonomic dysfunction [1]. The abrupt onset of the abnormal motor activities and the accompanying impairment or loss of consciousness is a dreadful and frightening experience to parents who may desperately employ all manners of available therapies in an effort to abort the convulsions [2–6]. While convulsions would have resolved spontaneously with minimal morbidity and mortality as obtained in technologically advanced countries [1], various emergency home therapies employed in developing countries bring about poor outcome [2–6]. The studies by Angyo et al. [2], Fagbule et al. [3], Okoji et al. [7], and Anochie and Graham-Douglas [8] on the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAPs) of home management of childhood convulsion in Nigeria have been hospital based. The researchers retrospectively surveyed for possible home treatments given to children who were admitted to the hospitals for convulsion. These studies cannot, therefore, be exempted from the pitfalls of such retrospective studies. Ofovwe et al. [9] determined the KAP of home management of febrile convulsions among rural and urban mothers in two Edo villages of south southern Nigeria. However, it is well known that sociocultural beliefs about illnesses are precursors to treatment seeking behavior and as such the findings of Ofovwe et al. [9] would probably reflect mothers’ belief about childhood