Prevalência dos hábitos de sucção não-nutritivos em pacientes pediátricos atendidos nas Clínicas da Criança e do Adolescente em uma universidade do sul do Brasil

Abstract

Non-nutritive sucking habits promote feelings of pleasure, security and well-being in children. In addition to dental alterations, they cause changes that are detrimental to craniofacial development and to swallowing, sucking, and breathing functions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits, associating them with age, gender and the period of breastfeeding, in addition to the time of day that the habits were performed. We analyzed 40 questionnaires from patients between 4 and 12 years of age of both genders, which were answered by those responsible for the children who attended the Clínica da Criança e do Jovens. The results indicated a high prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits in children at some point (70%), distributed in 55% who had already used a pacifier, 12% for finger sucking and 3% for others. For the pacifier, only breastfeeding had a statistical association and was more prevalent for males. There was no statistical association for finger sucking and it was more relevant for males. And for all habits, the frequency of achievement was just one shift per day. It is concluded that a high prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits was obtained for the studied population, where only the breastfeeding variable influenced the pacifier habit. Since, for finger sucking, no variable had statistical association. It was found that with increasing age, the pacifier habit decreased. According to the results, the longer the breastfeeding period, the lower the prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits.