Situation and Necessary of Child Rearing by Grandparents in Thai-Esan Lifestyle: A Case Study of Sichompu District, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative research was to study the situation and to figure out the guide to the development of raising young children by grandparents in the aspect of child-rearing in general child care, nutrition, child development, and oral care for children aged 0-3 years in Sichompu District, Khon Kaen Province. Data were collected from November 2019 to June 2020 by interviewing grandparents who populate in 13 service areas of Health Promoting Hospital, covering all ages of grandparents and village health volunteers. The results of the research revealed that in Thai-Esan Lifestyle, young children who were raised by only grandparents without parental involvement were up to 46.86%. The reason and need for grandparents for child-rearing were that the parents had to work in other places to earn money to support the family. The feelings of grandparents were both in positive and negative ways. Positively, they felt happy to look after their children, while in negative feeling was too tired to deal with their health condition and lack of income. In child nutrition, data revealed that grandparents selected accustomed foods for their children rather than foods based on academic principles. Moreover, the use of a growth graph was not widespread. In child development, grandparents had promoted child development and trained their children about self-help, but had not yet been evaluated for development thoroughly. Regarding oral health care in young children, the results also showed that grandparents still did not have enough knowledge and procedures to take care of their children’s oral health. Therefore, these grandparents should be enhanced and encouraged in all aspects of children’s parents, family members, neighbors, public health officers including local government organizations to support them for child-rearing appropriately.