Diarrhoea Prevention and Management Practices by Mothers and Caregivers of Under 5 Children in Nwangele Local Government Area

The study is on diarrhoea prevention and management practices by mothers and caregivers of under 5 children in Nwangele Local Government Area. The study was guided with four (7) objectives and four (4) hypotheses. A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used. A semi-structural questionnaire was used for data collection and sample size was 400 mothers. Data were analyzed using statistical software package version 20.0 to determine the percentage as well as the inferential statistical of Chi-square (X2). Result showed that 160(40.0%) mothers were aware of preventive measures of diarrhea. 93.2% of mothers believed that exclusive breastfeeding is used as a preventive measuresfor diarrhea while 40.0% adopted the use of quality water and 30.0% believe that maintaining cleanness is also used as a preventive measure to diarrhea diseases in under 5under children. In regards to the association between educational attainment and type of management action taken by mothers and caregivers of under 5 children, result shows that 162(50.6%) of mothers who attained tertiary education gave anti diarrheal drugs to their children as against 14(17.5%) mothers who attained only primary education. Also 53(16.6%) mothers who attained secondary/ tertiary education gave oral rehydration therapy to their children as against 12(15.0%) mothers who only had primary education. In regards to fluid intake and feeding to a child suffering diarrhea 41(12.5%) of educated mother give less amount of food during diarrhea episode as against 37(46.2%) non educated mothers, the result when put to test show that there is an association between mothers and caregivers educational attainment arid management of diarrhea in under 5 children this was found statistically significant p<0.001. diarrhea remains one of the major public health problems and mostly affects children under the age of 5 causing dehydration which can lead to death if not properly treated therefore the poor knowledge of the mothers required to be addressed by the health system as the mothers are the caregivers in the management of childhood diarrhea.