Sources used to obtain information and their impact on the mothers' complementary feeding practices

Aim: When, how and which nutrients complementary food is given, how the baby adapts to this situation is important for the growth, development, psychosocial, motor and cognitive development of the infant during childhood. The aim of this study was to learn the methods of obtaining information from mothers about the complementary feeding period Material and Methods: Mothers who had 6-36 months old children applied to the Pediatric outpatient clinics between May 2019 and May 2020 were included in the study on a voluntary basis. The socio-demographic information of the mothers, information about babies and complementary food were asked through a survey, which consisted of 3 parts. Results: One hundred forty mothers (65.7%) stated that they exclusively breastfed before complementary feeding. The most preferred method was to obtain information by traditional methods (61.5%). Families get more information from pediatricians (54.1%) as professional support. When we look at 79 mothers who stated that they obtained information via websites, it was found that 9 out of 15 mothers (60%) had a master's/doctorate degree, 28 out of 64 mothers (43.8%) were university graduates, 21 of 62 mothers (33%) were high school graduates (p = 0.001). Discussion: Though getting information about complementary feeding period from websites and social media may appeal to families due to fast and easy access, the presence of inaccurate or incomplete information, inability to control the information and lack of scientific basis will lead to misinformation and confusion