ABSTRACT
PIP: 1 of 4 mothers in 11 villages in a plain, lowland swampy area of south Sumatra was interviewed in September 1984 concerning practices in managing diarrhea in the past and any diarrheal attack which had occurred during the last 2 weeks in their children under age 5. There were 140 children suffering with diarrhea during that period. There were 954 mothers interviewed. Nurses were the main providers of diarrheal disease care in the area. Of 140 cases, 35 (25%) were self-treated, 72 were aided by healthworkers, and 60.7% received treatment from nurses in private practice. Decocts was the main medicine used by the family and traditional healer. Most of the health workers gave the injections, all of them prescribed drugs, and 49.2% practiced oral rehydration therapy (ORT). 35.6% of the mothers had known about ORT and 26.5% used this method. Of the 35 self-treated cases, 17.1% were given ORS. Gradual semi-starvation was not the common practice in the area. Breastfeeding was stopped during the diarrheal attack in 14.1% of the cases, while 37.6% stopped formula feeding and 9.1% stopped the weaning diet. The appreciation of the healthworker toward ORT was satisfactory but it may be that these workers were still occupied with the "fixed idea" of stopping diarrhea as soon as possible. Thus they were more likely to overuse drugs and the diet regimen. Clearly then there is a great neat to train healthworkers, especially nurses, to understand the more comprehensive management of diarrheal diseases.^ieng