News Release

Prolonged thumb sucking in infants may lead to speech impediments

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMC (BioMed Central)

Using a pacifier for too long may be detrimental to your child's speech. Research published in the open access journal BMC Pediatrics suggests that the use of bottles, pacifiers and other sucking behaviors apart from breast-feeding may increase the risk of subsequent speech disorders in young children.

A research team from the A research team from 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 three- to five- year old preschoolers from Patagonia, Chile. The team combined parents' reports of infant feeding and sucking behaviors with evaluations of their child's speech. They found that delaying bottle use until the child was at least 9 months old reduced the risk of later developing speech disorders while 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", according to Barbosa. This finding is particularly relevant, as use of bottles and pacifiers has increased dramatically over the last 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."

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Notes to Editors

1. The relationship of bottle feeding and other sucking behaviors with speech disorder in Patagonian preschoolers
Clarita Barbosa, Sandra Vasquez, Mary A Parada, Juan Carlos Velez Gonzalez, Chanaye Jackson, N. David Yanez, Bizu Gelaye and Annette L. Fitzpatrick
BMC Pediatrics
(in press)

During embargo, article available here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/imedia/1077100494283290_article.pdf?random=735186

After the embargo, article available at the journal website: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpediatr/

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request at press@biomedcentral.com on the day of publication

2. BMC Pediatrics is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of health care in neonates, children and adolescents, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. BMC Pediatrics (ISSN 1471-2431) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE and Google Scholar.

3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.


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