Baby powder use in infant skin care. Parental knowledge and determinants of powder usage.

One hundred parents of infants aged 2 weeks to 6 months were surveyed at the time of routine well-child visits to assess parental knowledge about baby powder and to determine whether hospital policy of providing a free powder sample to newly delivered mothers was unwittingly promoting powder usage. Most parents (69%) reported regular baby powder use as part of routine infant skin care. Powder-users were significantly more likely than nonusers to attribute to baby powder the ability to kill bacteria and yeast and to prevent diaper rash (p less than 0.01). Even among nonusers, fewer than half were aware that aspiration/ingestion of baby powder was a potential health hazard. Almost all parents reported receiving a free sample of baby powder while in the hospital as part of a complimentary gift pack provided by the manufacturers. Most powder-users were currently using a brand they had received as a sample, and eight parents cited the receipt of a sample as the major determinant for selecting a particular brand of powder. The short- and long-term effects of distributing sample packs to newly delivered parents deserve further study.