Oral Care Performed with Breast Milk in Preterm Newborns Fed by Tube: A Randomized Controlled Study.

This study examined the effect of breast milk on oral care practices in neonatal intensive care units. This study involved 64 preterm infants (intervention/breast milk: 32, control/distilled water: 32) and was carried out with a prospective, parallel, randomized controlled design. The "Newborn Oral Health Assessment Tool (NOHAT)" was used to assess oral care. The Mann-Whitney test, continuity correction test, Fisher's exact test, independent-samples test, and Wilcoxon signed ranks test were used to analyze the data. Examining the oral care performed using breast milk and distilled water with NOHAT scores, it was determined that there was a significant difference in the intervention group ( < 0.05). It is recommended to use breast milk for oral care.