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The prevalence of dummy and finger sucking habits in Copenhagen children until the age of 3 years
Author(s) -
Ravn J. J.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1974.tb01802.x
Subject(s) - medicine , habit , pediatrics , demography , breast feeding , food habits , birth weight , pregnancy , environmental health , psychology , sociology , biology , psychotherapist , genetics
The sucking habits of 248 single‐born children and 30 pairs of twins were recorded. All children examined were between 3 years 0 months and 3 years 1 month on the date of examination. The relationships between sucking habit, the weight of the child at birth and the pattern of nutrition during infancy were examined. There was a sharp reduction in the number of children who sucked dummies as age increased, from 84.3 % at age 1 year to 47.1 % at age 3 years. The situation was quite different with finger‐suckers: of the original 20 suckers, 17 were still sucking at the age of 3 years. A comparison between the two sexes' sucking habits showed that boys give up the sucking habit at an earlier age than girls. The feeding method in infancy has obviously no influence on the extent of sucking habits. It was found that weight at birth probably did not exert significant influence on sucking habits. A comparison between the feeding methods of single‐born infants and twins showed that very few twins are breast‐fed, the great majority being fed by bottle.