A study of mother's traditional infant care methods for infants less than a year old age

Abstract

Study Objective: This study examines the traditional methods that mothers use for infant care. Method: This is a descriptive study aimed to determine the traditional infant care methods for infants less than a year old age used by mothers in the city center of Denizli. The study was conducted with the collaboration of 352 mothers who had infants less than a year old and went to the primary healthcare centers. The participant mothers were selected using simple random sampling. The data was collected by the authors of this paper using a survey form from April 1 to June 30, 2014. Findings: It was found that 68.6% of the participant mothers used traditional infant care methods, and they had mainly learned about these methods from their own mothers (56%) and mothers-in-law (47.1%). Working mothers with more education used these traditional methods less frequently, while those with experience in infant care used these methods in question more often (p=0.000). The most widespread traditional methods were: putting salt on the infant (62.9%), keeping the infant’s navel cord at home (48%), swaddling (33.7%), believing in the evil eye (90.3%) and standing up and swinging the baby to rock it to sleep (34.6%). Traditional methods of infant care were found to be used at a low rate. Conclusion: The use of traditional infant care methods is low; however, they continue to be used. Mothers prefer to seek assistance from modern medicine for their infants’ health problems, while they use traditional practices for daily care. Mothers should be trained by health professionals on the traditional methods that pose a threat to infants’ health.

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