PUNTA ARENAS, Chile, Oct 21, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Bottles, pacifiers and
other sucking behavior apart from breastfeeding may increase speech disorder
risk in young children, U.S. and Chilean researchers say.
A research team at the Corporacion de Rehabilitacion Club De Leones Cruz del Sur
and the University of Washington Multidisciplinary International Research
Training Program, led by Clarita Barbosa, evaluated the associations between
sucking behaviors and speech disorders in 128 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers from
Patagonia, Chile.
The team collected data from the parents on infant feeding and sucking behaviors
and conducted evaluations of the child's speech.
The study, published in the journal BMC Pediatrics, found that delaying bottle
use until the child was at least 9 months old reduced the risk of a child later
developing speech disorders. Children who sucked their fingers or used a
pacifier for more than 3 years were three times more likely to develop speech
impediments.
"These results suggest extended use of sucking outside of breast-feeding may
have detrimental effects on speech development in young children," Barbosa says
in a statement. "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."
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