Parents Recognition of Illness in Infants: A New Zealand Pilot Study of Baby Check
Barry Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Otago Medical School, Dunedin
Peter Fleming, Senior Lecturer Child Health, University of Bristol, UK
Colin Morley, Senior Lecturer Child Health, University of Cambridge, UK
Reference: Taylor, B, Fleming, P, Morley, C, (1994). Parents Recognition of Illness in Infants: A New Zealand Pilot Study of Baby Check. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 9(1), 24-35.
Abstract:
Introduction
Recognition of the nature and severity of illness in infants has long been recognised as difficult, with little agreement about which signs and symptoms predict illness (Stanton et al, 1978; Valman, 1985; Bilbert et al, 1990). It is an area of practical concern and stress to parents and the practitioners on whom they rely, such as Plunket nurses, public health nurses, midwives, general practitioners (GP’s), paediatric and accident & emergency staff. Health workers are not there all of the 24 hours; parents are. What can help them to rapidly identify that their baby is ill?