Prevalence of pacifier-sucking habits and successful methods to eliminate them--a preliminary study.
OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to verify the prevalence of nutritive (breast-feeding and bottle-feeding) and non-nutritive (pacifier) sucking habits, the methods used to eliminate them, and success of these methods.


METHODS
To collect the data, 502 questionnaires were distributed to parents of 0- to 6-year-old children.


RESULTS
Bottle-feeding was used by 83% and pacifier by 63% of children. The professional's explanation, the use of substances on the pacifier, the abrupt interruption of the habit, and parents' explanations were efficient in 90%, 80%, 64%, and 38% of the cases, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Sucking habits had a high prevalence in this sample. An indirect linear relationship between breast-feeding and pacifier use demonstrated that the more the child was breast-fed, the less the pacifier was used. The most efficient method to end the pacifier-sucking habit was professional explanation; however, it was used less often.
Degan
Viviane V
VV
Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Oral Physiology, Piracicaba School of Dentistry/UNICAMP, Brazil.
Puppin-Rontani
Regina M
RM
D001903:Bottle Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D041361:Pacifiers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D013391:Sucking Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires