Table 3 Themes identified
From: Parents’ experiences caring for children with acute otitis media: a qualitative analysis
Theme | Sub Theme | Text |
|---|---|---|
Identifying AOM | Most parents looked for ear tugging to identify AOM | “when I noticed she was pulling her ears, I was going to take her to the emergency room, but I knew she had a doctor's appointment today.” (21) |
In absence of otalgia, parents attributed other symptoms to diseases other than AOM | “I didn't know if it was teething, just the fever. I didn't know. Because he didn't grab his ears or anything” (11) | |
Verbalized otalgia made parents more confident in their assumption of AOM | “he's telling me it hurts, so now I can, ‘Oh, okay, we need to go to the doctor's. You've got another ear infection.’” (32) | |
Experience caring for a child with AOM | Parents of children with history of AOM suspected AOM often | “he started not sleeping, so then I was like, ‘Ah I bet it's his ears.’” (15) |
Parents of children with no history of AOM generally did not suspect AOM if ear tugging was absent | “I actually didn't think that it was an ear trouble. She hasn't been suffering [inaudible] or anything, it's just that she wasn't sleeping.” (24) | |
Symptoms that bothered child vs. bothered parent | Symptoms that most troubled parents were often reported as the same symptom that most bothered their child | “Which [symptoms] were most bothersome to you?” (interviewer) “I think the fever too, just because it was hard to manage.” (11) |
Behaviors that led to parental distress | Parents reported feelings of helplessness and sadness when children were difficult to console | “Awful. Completely awful. I feel helpless.” (22) |
Parents’ efforts to console their child | Parents devoted more attention to their children | “I pick her up. I cradle her, rock her back and forth in my arms. I try to rub her back, give her kisses.” (26) |
Parents administered analgesics, antipyretics, and home remedies to their ill children | “I was using a warm compress… to kind of calm or kind of keep him a little bit happier” (43) | |
Factors associated with the decision to seek medical evaluation | Parents sought medical care when they believed they could not manage their child’s symptoms without assistance | “the fact that I can't really calm him down and comfort him showed that I needed to get more help than just me” (22) |
Fever and disturbed sleep were symptoms that caused parents concern and instilled a sense of urgency to take their child to a physician | “I can take care of that, like a cough, sore throat, stuff like that. But the fever is what would really scare me” (18) “[He] just was still not sleeping and just being fussy during the day and it just– I wasn't sleeping, and so that's when I was like, ‘I guess I'm just going to have him go checked out’” (15) | |
How parents determine when AOM has resolved | Parents stated that their child being back to their ‘normal self’ signified AOM resolution | “Just back to his normal routine. That usually tells me that he's better.” (11) |