Feeding practices and dental caries in an urban Canadian population of Vietnamese preschool children.
The aim of this project was to determine the severity of nursing caries, and to examine contributing behavioral factors, in a group of Vietnamese families in British Columbia, Canada. The data collected became the basis for a community-based oral health promotion program. Information on feeding, dental health practices, and dental caries were collected for 60 mother/child pairs. For children > or = 18 mos, prevalence of nursing caries was 64 percent. Sixty-five percent of all children had a naptime bottle, and 85 percent > or = 18 mos had a "comfort" bottle that was carried around, and drunk from during the day. Milk was the most common beverage. A "comfort" bottle was significantly related to the presence of nursing caries, P = 0.02; a naptime bottle had a less significant association, P = 0.07. Dental knowledge questions revealed that all mothers knew that a child who had a "comfort" bottle could get tooth decay, but 63 percent thought that cavities were not a problem in baby teeth.
Harrison
R
R
Department of Clinical Dental Sciences, University of British Columbia.
Wong
T
T
Ewan
C
C
Contreras
B
B
Phung
Y
Y
D000818:Animals; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001903:Bottle Feeding / Q000009:adverse effects; D001955:British Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006267:Health Education, Dental; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008892:Milk; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology