[Teaching and counseling families with small children in an urban area about minor illnesses of childhood].
INTRODUCTION: Parents' knowledge of and experience with illness in their children are often limited. They find it difficult to take the responsibility when their children are ill. They seek help immediately from the health care system, although the symptoms are mild. We wanted to discover whether teaching parents about minor illness in children and counselling over the telephone during acute illness would mean that parents sought help less often from the health care system, when their children became ill. This article deals with the teaching of the parents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The project had an intervention group of 91 children aged 12-35 months and a control group of 400 children aged 9-33 months. The intervention group was instructed for two hours twice in the local day nursery and telephone counselling from a nurse trained in children's acute illnesses was made available from 4 pm to 11 pm on weekdays and from 10 am to 11 pm at weekends during the period 20th October 1998 to 1st May 1999. RESULTS: No visible change was seen in the use of the health care system in either group, but there was a small change in favour of the intervention group in the use of a general practitioner instead of calling the emergency medical service. Eighty per cent of the counselling dealt with common acute illnesses; 75% ended without referral. DISCUSSION: There was no visible difference in the use of the health care system in either group. Parents were happy with the offer of teaching and telephone counselling, but it should have been given when the infants started at the nursery. They felt their children were too old at the time the project started. We suggest a continuation of antenatal classes in the form of "parent preparation classes", where one subject could be minor acute illnesses in children.