Traditional Practices Used by Mothers in Infant Care: A Descriptive Study

Objective: This study was conducted descriptively to\rdetermine the traditional practices used by mothers having infants\raged 0-12 months in infant care. Material and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with 186 mothers living in Gümüşhane\rKelkit and having infants aged 0-12 months in February-August 2019.\rThe data were collected using the Questionnaire Form and the Traditional Practices Regarding Infant Care Form. Ethics committee and\rinstitution permission was obtained before the study, and written consent was obtained from the mothers during the study. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency, median, minimum,\rmaximum) were used to evaluate the data. Results: Of the mothers;\r85.5% gave breast milk to the infant first, 71.5% of them fed their infants in the first 15 minutes, 57.5% of them were not alone with their\rinfants for fincubus, and 36.0% of them swaddled their infants. Of the\rmothers; 61.8% wiped the infant's mouth with carbonated water for\rmoniliasis, 57.1% gave plenty of water in diarrhea, 36.4% took off\rthe infant's clothes in the fever and 39.3% put a towel on the infant's\rback for coughing. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that\rthe majority of mothers gave breast milk to the infant first fed their infants within the first 15 minutes, they did not make any application for\rthe infant's navel to fall quickly, more than half of them wiped the infant's mouth with carbonated water for moniliasis, more than half gave\rtheir infants plenty of water in diarrhea, more than one third took off\rthe baby's clothes for fever and put a towel on the infant's back for\rcoughing.