Home collection of urine for culture from infants by three methods: survey of parents' preferences and bacterial contamination rates

Infants are most likely to scar and often have non-specific symptoms. Because of practical difficulties with collecting urine, samples are often not obtained. 1 Most samples are collected by parents, 2 yet nobody has sought parents' views on available methods. Parents' assessments Pad Bag Clean catch Preference order First 21 18 5 Second 19 12 13 Third 4 14 26 Open comments Positive Easy, hygienic, or quick 25 24 8 Comfortable for child 10 3 0 Negative Uncomfortable or distressing 1 26 3 Fiddly or messy 9 10 20 Impractical or time consuming 10 0 36 Difficult to get urine out of pad 8 - - Red marks left on skin - 11 - Too much trouble-gave up (boys) 1 (0) 4 (3) 9 (5) Parents found the pads and bags easy to use and preferred them to clean catch collections (table) for both sexes.