Efecto de la lactancia materna en la prevención de hábitos nocivos de succión y de malocusión en niños de 3 a 5 años de edad

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify the relationship that exists between children who received exclusive or mixed maternal breastfeeding for a period of no less than four months and the absence of harmful sucking habits. The compilation of information obtained from the questionnaire given to parents and the observation sheet for recording the presence of malocclusions will enable the correlation between the type of maternal breastfeeding and harmful sucking habits the presence of malocclusions. This descriptive study compares the rates of harmful habits such as fingersucking, pacifier and baby bottle use in 120 children between the ages ofthree and five years who received exclusive or mixed maternal breastfeeding for a period of no less than four months (n=49 and n=71, respectively). The study establishes that the presence of harmful sucking habits for more than 36 months results in maloclussions. lt also reveals that these harmful sucking habits are more frequent in those children who received mixed maternal breastfeeding (95%), causing malocclusions, with anterior open bite being the most frequent type (87%). The findings demonstrate an unawareness of the importan ce of exclusive maternal breastfeeding (62.5%) to prevent the formation of harmful sucking habits, as well as a lack of information provided by health professionals, especially phonoaudiologists (11 %). The contribution of this research will lay the foundations for promoting oral health with an interdisciplinary approach in which phono-audiologists will play an increasingly important role.