Top 19 Useful Folk Tips for Mothers and Babies

To make breast milk smell better, the elders suggest that after childbirth, a boy should use 7 papaya leaves, and a girl should use 9 leaves. After cleaning and boiling the leaves, dip a comb into the papaya leaf water and gently comb it around the chest to help the milk smell better and flow more quickly.

In the past, to promote faster milk production, people recommended mixing white wine with yeast, kneading the mixture until soft, and applying it to the chest for 15-20 minutes. This was believed to help stimulate milk flow and improve the quality and fragrance of the milk.

For a healthy belly, mothers should apply a traditional remedy once the baby's umbilical cord falls off. Mix a small amount of coconut oil with roasted alum, crush it, and use cotton to dip into the mixture. Apply it to the baby's belly button until the cotton piece dries. This remedy, passed down through generations, helps reduce tummy pain in babies. Be sure to try this trick for your little one.

The elders recommend a simple remedy to clean the baby's tongue without causing a mess: extract juice from spinach leaves, add a little honey, and steam it. Then, use a cotton swab to dip into the mixture and gently clean the baby's mouth. This traditional method is highly effective, so don't forget to try it for your little one.

According to traditional remedies, if your baby experiences reflux, try using bamboo shoots. Boil the shoots and let the baby drink the water instead of plain water. For a baby boy, use 7 shoots, and for a baby girl, use 9 shoots for the best results.

If your baby is suffering from heat rash due to overheating, try using bitter melon or mint leaves. Crush them to extract the juice and use it to bathe the baby. This traditional remedy, passed down by the elders, is very effective for treating rashes.

If your little one has a cold, sneezes a lot, and has clear, watery mucus, try roasting garlic for them to eat. For younger babies, you can squeeze the roasted garlic and give them the juice to drink. This folk remedy for treating colds and sneezing in babies is quite effective.

Many people still suggest that if your little one has constipation, you can take a stem of the spinach plant, peel off the outer layer, and insert the tender part into the baby's anus a few times for effectiveness. Alternatively, you can feed your baby avocado, which also helps relieve constipation.

According to folk wisdom, when taking your little one for vaccination, mothers should eat fresh perilla leaves the day before and then breastfeed, as the antibiotic properties in perilla leaves help prevent fever. For babies on formula, you can mash perilla leaves and mix them with warm water for the baby to drink.

As the elders say, if you want your child to have long, curved eyebrows, before the baby is one month old, buy some betel leaves, break off the stems, and apply the sap onto the eyebrows in the desired shape. This is said to encourage the eyebrows to grow in that shape.

To help your child have smooth, fair skin, remember to start giving them coconut water when they turn 6 months old. As the elders say, at 6 months, give your baby 2-3 teaspoons per day, gradually increasing the amount, and they will develop a fair complexion with smooth skin.

As our ancestors have said, if your baby has diaper rash, immediately brew some green tea and use it to wash or bathe your baby. Green tea contains lysozyme, which acts as an antibacterial agent and helps effectively treat the bacteria on the skin.

If your baby’s eyes are blocked with discharge, immediate cleaning is necessary to prevent difficulty in opening the eyes. It is best to mix warm water with a little salt and use cotton balls to clean your baby’s eyes. Only clean the eye with discharge to avoid spreading it to the healthy eye. Clean your baby’s eyes twice a day.

If constipation in babies lasts for too long, it can lead to serious complications such as poor appetite, indigestion, vomiting, slow growth, stunted development, and malnutrition. Therefore, mothers should not ignore this issue. It's essential to learn how to treat constipation in newborns to resolve the problem in the early stages. Gently massage the baby's belly using three fingers, moving in circular motions around the belly button for 3 to 5 minutes. This will help soften undigested food and encourage bowel movement, helping the baby relieve constipation faster.

When your baby has mouth ulcers, it's important to pay attention to their diet, especially once they start eating solid foods and can digest food directly without relying on breast milk. The foods they consume at this stage can either worsen or alleviate the ulcers. Purslane is a common herb that grows abundantly in rural areas. If your little one has mouth ulcers, gather a few mature purslane leaves, wash them thoroughly, and crush them. Soak medical gauze in the purslane juice and gently apply it to the affected area. Repeat this 2–3 times a day, and you should see results in about two days.

Garlic is considered a powerful remedy for health issues, commonly used to treat digestive problems, colds, malaria, infections, and stomach ulcers. However, few people know that garlic can also effectively treat threadworms. To treat threadworms, prepare 1–2 cloves of garlic, 1 organic egg, boiling water, and a filter cloth. The method is simple: peel and crush the garlic, then soak it in hot water for about 2 hours. After that, strain the mixture and mix it with the egg yolk to create a uniform paste.

Use this mixture to clean the child’s anus 3–5 times to eliminate threadworms. Be persistent! If you have sesame oil, you can also replace the egg with sesame oil, which is just as effective in clearing threadworms.

For generations, it has been passed down that if a pregnant woman reaches the fifth month of pregnancy and follows certain practices, she will give birth to a clean and plump baby. Drinking plenty of coconut water and consuming fermented rice yeast are said to contribute to a clean baby and make the labor process easier. Expectant mothers should take note of this advice.

For generations, people have passed down the belief that a strong digestive system for babies can be supported by a dish called "dạ dày om tiêu". It is said that when a mother eats this dish during the 32nd or 33rd week of pregnancy, the baby born will not suffer from diarrhea, and their digestive system will be very robust.

Mothers often share a folk remedy that when a baby is 3 months and 10 days old, rubbing mung bean sprouts with chives around the baby's mouth can help with teething without causing fever. This old tradition has been passed down for generations. While rubbing, mothers should say, "Teething like bean sprouts, teething without fever."