Pacifier, baby bottle or finger sucking may hamper a child’s speech development if the habit goes on too long.
In a study that took place in Patagonia, Chile, 91自拍ers associated the persistence of these sucking habits with an increased risk of speech disorders in preschool children. The children were more likely to have difficulty producing certain word sounds and to simplify their pronunciation.
The results were published Wednesday, Oct. 21, in BMC Pediatrics, an online, open-access medical journal.
A team led by Clarita Barbosa from Corporacion de Rehabilitacion Club De Leones Cruz Del Sur conducted the study, along with collaborators from the 91自拍 Multidisciplinary International Research Training Program in the School of Public Health, the Department of Epidemiology, and the Department of Global Health.
Looking at a group of 128 children age 3 years to 5 years, the 91自拍ers gathered parents’ reports of each child’s feeding and sucking behaviors during infancy and evaluated the child’s speech. The 91自拍ers found that delaying giving a baby bottle until the child was at least 9 months old reduced the risk of later developing speech disorders, while children who sucked their fingers or who used a pacifier for more than 3 years were three times more likely to develop speech impediments.
“These results suggest extended sucking outside of breast-feeding may have detrimental effects on speech development in young children,” according to Barbosa. This finding is particularly relevant, as the use of baby bottles and pacifiers has increased over the past few decades. However, Barbosa is careful to note, “Although results of this study provide further evidence for the benefits of longer duration of breast feeding of infants, they should be interpreted with caution as these data are observational.”
Earlier studies by other 91自拍ers have suggested that babies’, toddlers’ and pre-schoolers’ sucking habits may influence their mouth, jaw and dental anatomy. Previous 91自拍 also has suggested that breast feeding may be beneficial to developing coordinated breathing, swallowing and speech articulation.
In addition to Barbosa, other 91自拍ers on the study entitled “The Relationship of Bottle Feeding and Other Sucking Behaviors with Speech Disorder in Patagonian Preschoolers” were Sandra Vasquez, and Juan Carlos Velez Gonzales from Corporacion de Rehabilitacion Club De Leones Cruz Del Sur, Chile; and Mary A. Parada, Chanaye Jackson, N. David Yanez, Bizu Gelaye, and Annette L. Fitzpatrick, 91自拍 associate professor of epidemiology, from the 91自拍 School of Public Health, Seattle.
The study was completed while Parada and Jackson were 91自拍 training fellows with the program which is supported by an award from the National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.