Práticas alimentares e de higiene bucal de lactentes: estudo observacional

Abstract

Introduction: Dietary and oral hygiene practices represent behaviors of the child and their family nucleus and constitute factors involved in the occurrence of early childhood caries. Objective: To evaluate the dietary and oral hygiene practices of infants and the child's oral condition. Material and methods: Observational descriptive study. Children from one to 23 months of age and their parents participated in the study. A questionnaire was applied through interviews containing socio-demographic data, dietary and oral hygiene practices. The child's oral condition (without or with caries lesions) was obtained from the clinical examination recorded in the dental records. The data were tabulated and analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences program version 22.0. The numerical distribution and percentage of correct answers was calculated in each of the ten steps for a healthy diet of children under two years of age recommended by the Food Guide of the Ministry of Health and the oral hygiene practices recommended by American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Results: 93 infants participated in the study, 53 (59.99%) and 40 (43.01%) males and females, respectively, aged between 6 and 23 months (mean 16 months and standard deviation of 11 months). The average percentage of correct answers for dietary and oral hygiene practices was 84.05% (standard deviation of 15.72%) and 63.80% (standard deviation of 15.20%), respectively. Only four (4.30%) children had caries lesions. Conclusion: dietary and oral hygiene practices proved inadequate and the prevalence of early childhood caries was low.