Types of Feeding and Presence of Harmful Oral Habits in Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate: A Pilot Study

Kriss Melani Sanga Gárate,Beatriz Costa,Mariana Leonel Martins,Gloria Fernanda Barbosa De Araújo Castro

doi:10.1590/pboci.2020.154

Abstract

Objective: To verify the relationship between the types of feeding and presence of harmful oral habits (HOH) in children with cleft lip (CL), palate (CP) and cleft lip and palate (CLP), as well as to compare the different types of cleft to each other. Material and Methods: A form was applied to the parents of 162 children (3-5 years old), addressing the following variables: gender, cleft type, age, socioeconomic conditions, type of breastfeeding, presence of HOH, and the parents' knowledge about the consequences of oral habits. The data obtained were analyzed by chi-square test (p<0.05). Results: The majority of children (83.3%) were bottle-fed and 12.3% were exclusively maternal breastfed. The main reason for weaning was the presence of cleft (59.9%). Breastfeeding was significantly higher in children with CL (75%) in comparison with CP (20%) and CLP (5%) (p<0.001). Children with CLP were 12 times more likely to be bottle-fed than children with CL (OR=12.21; CI=4.09-36.45). The prevalence of HOH was 37%. Sociodemographic characteristics were not associated with the presence of HOH (p>0.05). The type of feeding and cleft were not decisive to present some type of HOH (p>0.05) and 87% of parents stated that HOH could lead to serious complications of tooth misalignment. Conclusion: The type of feeding and fissure did not determine the acquisition of harmful oral habits in children with cleft. However, the greater the fissure's complexity, the lesser the chance of children receiving exclusive breastfeeding.

Highlights

Breast milk is the main source of nutrition, which aims at the survival of the baby [1,2], meeting all nutritional needs [3,4,5] and promoting the affective bond between mother and child, which helps to build a suitable environment for the child [6]
If the oral habit is not discontinued at this age, it may cause oral damage such as morphological alteration in the palate, malocclusion and gingival changes [8,9,12,13]; the severity of the damage is related to the frequency, duration and intensity of the oral habit [14]
In the bivariate evaluation between the type of feeding and type of cleft, it was observed that bottle-fed was more prevalent in children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) (57.8%), while breastfeeding was more prevalent in children with cleft lip (CL) (75%), which shows statistically significant differences (p

Summary

Introduction

Breast milk is the main source of nutrition, which aims at the survival of the baby [1,2], meeting all nutritional needs [3,4,5] and promoting the affective bond between mother and child, which helps to build a suitable environment for the child [6] It plays a very important role in the proper development of dentofacial structures and their functions [4], contributing to maxillary growth [7], harmonic development of dental arches and reducing the risk of acquiring some type of malocclusion [8,9]. If the oral habit is not discontinued at this age, it may cause oral damage such as morphological alteration in the palate, malocclusion (anterior open bite, and posterior crossbite) and gingival changes [8,9,12,13]; the severity of the damage is related to the frequency, duration and intensity of the oral habit [14]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion