Home Management of Childhood Febrile Convulsions among Women in Child-Bearing Age in Obiagu, Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State

Febrile convulsion or seizure is a common emergency in pediatrics which triggers anxiety in parents due to associated morbidities and mortality. This study assessed the home management of childhood febrile convulsion in Obiagu, Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among women of child-bearing age in Obiagu, Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria. The population of this study consisted of 1,850 women but 328 is a convenient sample employed in the study. A structured questionnaire with reliability coefficient of 0.83 was used in gathering the necessary data for the study which were analyzed with SPSS version 17.0. It was discovered that all the respondents (320) were aware of febrile convulsion. Two hundred and sixty-five (265) (82.81%) of the women understood febrile convulsion to be high temperature associated with jerking of the child. Also, high temperature was perceived by 269 (84.06%) of the women to be the cause while 140 (43.75%) believe that it was caused by evil forces or demonic. Two hundred and twenty-six (226) (70.63%) of the women applied palm kernel oil on their children’s body during convulsion, 124 (38.7%) used herbal concoctions and 105 (32.81%) put substances like palm oil or kerosene in the eyes of their convulsing children. The reason for these actions is mainly because they did not want their children to die. Others include not being aware of better methods and that the materials used were readily available. The women in Obiagu were aware of febrile convulsion and their perception of its cause was fair but they lacked knowledge of appropriate actions to take during febrile convulsion.