Association between breastfeeding duration and non-nutritive sucking habits.
To evaluate the relationship between breastfeeding duration and the prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits in children with deciduous dentition.



A cross-sectional survey was conducted on the mothers of 551 children aged 3 to 6 years, randomly selected from public pre-schools in São Paulo, Brazil. Mothers were asked to complete a questionnaire that included items regarding their children's age, gender, race, method and duration of infant feeding, as well as pacifier use and/or digit-sucking habits. According to the answers pertinent to the method and duration of infant feeding, children were assigned to five groups: 1--never breastfed, 2--breastfed for a period shorter than 3 months of life, 3--breastfed for 3 to 6 months, 4--breastfed for 6 to 9 months, and 5--breastfed for 9 months or longer. Data were submitted to the Fisher's exact test with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons to analyse possible associations between breastfeeding duration period categories and non-nutritive sucking behaviours.



Pacifier use frequency was high in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 (85%, 87.6%, 78% and 70%, respectively), in comparison with that in group 5 (38.6%). The prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits was significantly reduced in children who were breastfed for nine months or longer (p = 0.000). There were no statistically significant differences in the frequencies of pacifier use and/or digit-sucking habits between genders, regardless of the breastfeeding duration period.



Children aged 3-6 years who were breastfed for nine months or longer had a lower prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits.
Department of Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, University of São Paulo City, UNICID, São Paulo, Brazil. helioorto@uol.com.br
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D001938:Brazil; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005386:Fingersucking; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D041361:Pacifiers; D012737:Sex Factors; D013391:Sucking Behavior; D013997:Time Factors; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous