Abstract
The development of photo-posters to educate the Nigerian community on the perceived problems of teething was prompted by research findings which revealed that misconceptions about teething were widespread within the populace and in particular among some health professionals. Studies have shown that 58% of ethnic Yoruba rural dwellers in Nigeria attributed ailments to the teething process, while 70% of market women in Enugu State perceived diarrhea in their children was due to teething. In a recent survey, 61.4% of nurses believed diarrhea should accompany the teething process. Furthermore 82.1%, 35.8%, and 27.9% of them implicated fever, weight loss, and boils respectively as signs of teething. Photo-posters adopt the use of visual representation of a problem and the goal of using photo-posters is to begin to create an understanding in the minds of people that babies can be healthy in spite of their erupting teeth. It is believed that using pictures of real babies who are seen to be healthy when their teeth first emerge should go a long way to reducing some of the misconceived ideas. In its development, the participatory approach was adopted involving selected members of the target population, thus making it a culturally appropriate tool. This article describes the rationale behind the choice of the photo-posters and the process of developing them.
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