EN
Determination of Knowledge Levels of Mothers on Infant Nutrition and Use of Herbal Products
Abstract
Background: Infancy nutrition is important for the smooth growth and development of the baby. In this period, the importance of breast milk and alternative treatment methods are more oriented to complaints such as sleep, gas/bloating and fever in infants. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers with babies aged 0-2 years living in Karabük province about infant nutrition and the use of herbs in the problems they encounter.
Methods: The study included 121 volunteer mothers with infants aged 0-2 years in Karabük. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire containing 35 questions about sociodemographic characteristics, infant nutrition and herbal product use. Percentage and frequency distributions were used to analyze the data, and Student t test and ANOVA were used to evaluate the parameters with normal distribution.
Results: In the study, it was determined that 37.2% of the infants were exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, 40.5% had a total breastfeeding duration of 7-12 months, 53.7% started complementary feeding after the 6th month, 62% of the mothers preferred medical treatment, 19.8% preferred herbal treatment and 18.2% preferred both treatment methods. It was observed that there was a statistical relationship between sociodemographic characteristics such as education level, age range, number of children in the family, BMI of the mother, duration of breastfeeding and herbal product use (p<0.05).
Conclusions: There is a need for more comprehensive and prospective studies on breastfeeding, breast milk and herbal products in the community.
Keywords
References
- 1. Fitriyani P, Mulyono S and Handayani TW. The importance of nutrition education to change mother's knowledge and behaviour in achieving adequate nutrition for toddler. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Nursing and Health Sciences 2024;(5)1, 127-134.
- 2. Bafila P, Tiwari K, Bisla G, et al. Nutritional and compositional aspects of complementary feeding. In AIP Conf. 2024;(1) 2978.
- 3. World Health Organızatıon. WHO Guideline for complementary feeding of infants and young children 6-23 months of age. WHO, 2023.
- 4. Paksoy Erbaydar N and Erbaydar T. Relationship between caesarean section and breastfeeding: evidence from the 2013 Turkey demographic and health survey. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2020;(20)1-9.
- 5. Turkey Nutrition Guide (TÜBER)-2022. T.C. Ministry of Health Publication, Ankara 2022;1031.
- 6. Erarslan ZB and Kültür Ş. Medicinal plants traditionally used to increase breast milk in Turkey: An ethnobotanical review. J Herb Med. 2024;100849.
- 7. Husby S, Koletzko S, Korponay-Szabó I, et al. European society paediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition guidelines for diagnosing coeliac disease 2020. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2020;70(1), 141-156.
- 8. Wu W. Symptom management in children who are neurologically ımpaired for the primary care medical home. Pediatr Ann. 2024;53(3), e82-e87.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Public Health (Other)
Journal Section
Research Article
Early Pub Date
June 18, 2025
Publication Date
July 1, 2025
Submission Date
November 4, 2024
Acceptance Date
May 16, 2025
Published in Issue
Year 2025 Volume: 16 Number: 3