Análise da influência do tempo de amamentação natural no desenvolvimento de hábitos bucais de sucção não nutritivos, na dentadura decídua

Abstract

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to analyze the influence of the duration of the natural breastfeeding in the development of the nonnutritive sucking habits (pacifier and digit sucking), in the deciduous dentition. The sample comprised 551 Brazilian children, 256 males and 295 females, from 3 to 6 years of age, students of the public school located at the east zone of the city of São Paulo, the subjects were grouped according to the duration of breastfeeding, Group I, comprised children who never had breastfeeding, Group II, was breastfed until 3 months; Group III, breastfeeding between 3 to 6 months; Group IV, breastfeeding during 6 to 9 months; and Group V, breastfeeding during 9 months or more. The results was analyzed from the chi-square (2) statistical test. The prevalence of the sucking habits, particularly pacifier, was high and constant in the groups I, II, III and IV, and substantially reduced only in the Group V. In this study, the number of the children with digit sucking was little, showed no significant association by chi-square statistic. The differences in the prevalence of the sucking habit, between the gender, was not statistically significant.