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This study examined the home management of febrile conditions in 131 children by caregivers who attended Children Emergency (CHER) clinics of selected health facilities in Anambra South-East Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey design was employed for the study and all caregivers gave their informed consent before the study. The children were aged between 1 day and 5 years old, and had fever as one of the presenting symptoms. A self-developed questionnaire and observation guide were used for data collection and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results of the study revealed that 123 (93.9%) of the caregivers first treated their febrile children at home before reporting to the health facility. The immediate actions taken by 99 of the 131 respondents (75.5%) were: the removal of clothing and exposing the child to air, and administering syrup paracetamol and antibiotics, respectively. The most common home remedies used by caregivers were herbal preparations. However, the proportion of caregivers that used home preparations (name—unknown) as home remedies (n=84; 75.7%) was not statistically significant (Zcal1.85<Ztab1.96; P=0.06). A significant proportion (Zcal7.522>Ztab1.96; P=0.02) of caregivers (120, 91.6%) specified ‘first aid’ as their reason for treatment at home. The proportion of cases that survived when brought to the health facility for management was also statistically significant (Zcal7.279>Ztab1.96; P=0.03). Thus, the study suggests that treatment practices at home by caregivers constitute major determinants of the outcome of management of febrile conditions at health facility.

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