Abstract

OBJECTIVE

The fever, one of the defensive tools of the body, is not a disease its own but it is one of the symptoms of the disease. For the families having small children, the fever is an important reason of fear. So, it may lead to wrong applications.

This study was carried out with the aim determining the applications carried out by mothers having small children.

METHODS

The sample of the study, descriptive type, consists of the mothers having children 0-6 age goup and living the regions belonging to two Family Health Centres giving service for the Town of Palandoken of Erzurum city. 354 mothers chosen by method of simple randomized sampling and accepting to the study and being at least primary school graduate and applying for any reason to the Family health centers between the date October 3 2011 - February 15 2012 were included in the sampling group. Questionnaire form used in the collection of the data consists of the questions partaining to introductory features of the mothers and those orienting to applications made by mothers. About ten minutes-duration was used for the form filled by mothers themselves.

RESULTS

It was determined that age averages of the mothers participated in the study was 30.20 ± 5.57, and that 44.6% of these mothers graduated from primary school. It was also determined that 57.3% of the mothers said that they knew their childrens body heat, but it was found out that 54.7% of the mothers who said that they knew body heat infact knew the normal values of the body heat. It was found out that 74.4% of mothers measure their children’s body heat from axilla, and that 11.9% of the mothers evaluated the fever without using clinical thermometer. When their children’s fever raised, it was found out that 76.6% of the mothers gave medicinice for reducing the fever, and that 61.9% of the mothers took their children’s clothings off, and that 52.8% of the mothers made them have a shower, and that 16.9% of the mothers commenced antibiotic immediately. It was observed that 75.7% of the mothers made the children drink water when they have fever, and that 92.4% of the mothers didn’t give aspirin to reduce the fever, and that 82.5% of the mothers feared of the situation when their children had fever.

CONCLUSION

It was found out that the mothers, accepted the fever as dangerous, but they heeded knowledge and application about the fever.