TY - JOUR T1 - Use of natural health products in children JF - Canadian Family Physician JO - Can Fam Physician SP - e372 LP - e378 VL - 59 IS - 8 AU - Andrea Pike AU - Holly Etchegary AU - Marshall Godwin AU - Farah McCrate AU - John Crellin AU - Maria Mathews AU - Rebecca Law AU - Leigh Anne Newhook AU - Jody Kinden Y1 - 2013/08/01 UR - http://www.cfp.ca/content/59/8/e372.abstract N2 - Objective To gain a more thorough understanding of why parents choose to give their children natural health products (NHPs), parents’ sources of information about NHPs, and the extent of disclosure and conversation with family doctors about the use of NHPs. Design Qualitative study. Setting Newfoundland and Labrador. Participants Parents of children who were using NHPs (N = 20). Methods Individual, semistructured interviews were carried out with parents to obtain a better understanding of the reasoning behind the use of NHPs. Key themes emerging from the qualitative data were identified according to a number of criteria, including relevance to the research objectives, frequency with which a theme was mentioned, relative importance of the themes based on the amount of text taken up to address an issue, and emphasis (eg, emphatic or emotional speech). Main findings The types of NHPs used by parents participating in this study varied, except for the use of multivitamins. In addition, use of the products themselves was variable and inconsistent. Parents reported few concerns about the use of NHPs. The most commonly reported source of information about NHPs was family and friends. Most participants had not spoken to their family doctors about the use of NHPs. Conclusion Participants considered NHPs to be “natural” and seemed to equate this assessment with safety. This might explain why these parents sought advice and information from family and friends rather than from their family doctors and often failed to disclose the use of NHPs to their children’s family doctors. ER -