How mothers feed their 0-12-month-old children in Turkey's Eastern province of Van?

Objective: This research was planned to evaluate how mothers with 0-12-month-old infants who had been admitted to health centers in the city center of Van. Methods: The data of this descriptive research were collected by face-to-face interviews with 635 mothers. The data were evaluated by chi-square and logistic regression analysis. Results: The mean duration of exclusive breastfeeding of infants was 4 months. While 47.9% of 1-6-month-old infants were still being breastfed, 53.5% of 7-12-month-old infants were being fed with proper nutrition in addition to breast milk. It was confirmed that infants of 6 months or younger are four times better fed than babies of 7 months and older, infants breastfed in the first postnatal hour are fed 1.6 times better than those breastfed after the first hour, and that infants not given pacifiers are two times better fed compared to those that are not given these aids. Conclusion: In the present study, the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding was higher than that indicated average of Turkey. Additionally, a negative relationship was found between using pacifiers and proper nutrition. Our study showed that the aims that WHO and of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) suggest could not be reached but results were still found to be better compared to those of TNSA-2008 and TNSA-2013. Keywords: Exclusively breastfed, infant, education, proper nutrition