Dietary and Feeding Habits in a Sample of Preschool Children in Severe Early Childhood Caries (S-ECC)

The aim of the present study is to investigate dietary and feeding habits in a sample of preschool children with Severe Early Childhood Caries. The design followed a case control study; sixty children were selected, and another thirty caries free children were selected as controls. Children were healthy, diagnosed as Severe Early Childhood Caries, with age range 36-71 months. A clinical examination was done to measure decayed, missing and filled index. A questionnaire interview was performed to evaluate dietary habits, feeding habits and behavior. There was a highly significant differences between both groups regarding the dietary habits, mainly the frequency of eating sugar (p = 0.003), the eating frequency of salty snacks (fishfash, chips) (p = 0.006, p = 0.002), frequency of drinking flavored milk (p = 0.008), and the consumption of soda drinks (p = 0.001). A significant difference was found between both groups regarding the child feeding behavior, indicating increased risk of caries in a child who went to bed with bottle and who was fed at will (p = 0.000). Based on the sample of patient studied, it was concluded that snacks and sugar consumption between meals, night feeding and at will feeding are significant risk factors.