Abstract:

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 L.G.A. Enugu North Local government of Enugu State, Nigeria. The population of this study consist of 1850 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) are aware of febrile convulsion. 265 (82.81%) of the women understand 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 is caused by evil forces or demonic. 226 (70.63%) of the women applied palm kernel oil on their child’s body during convulsion, 124 (38.7%) used herbal concoction and 105 (32.81%) put substances like palm oil or kerosene in the eye of their convulsing children. The reasons for these actions are mainly because they do 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 are aware of febrile convulsion and their perception of its cause is fair but they lack knowledge of appropriate actions to take during febrile convulsion.