Dental Care: Prolonged Baby Bottle Feeding: a Health Risk Factor
Dental Care:
Prolonged Baby Bottle Feeding: A Health Risk Factor
Abstract
Deysi is a 2-year-old girl who lives with her parents in a one-bedroom apartment. Her mother and father work outside of the home, approximately 10 hours/day. Child care is provided by a network of women who include licensed home-based providers and a variety of friends and extended family members. On most evenings, Deysi's father picks her up from the child care site and gives her a fresh bottle of chocolate-flavored milk for the 45- minute trip home. She usually falls asleep while drinking it; Deysi's parents see this routine as a comfort for their daughter that usually results in a most welcomed, quiet car ride home at the end of a busy day.
Maintaining Continuity of Care
Prolonged baby bottle use (beyond 12 months of age) is a common feeding practice that is often accompanied by recumbent feeding at nap or night-time sleep. Kaste and Gift (1995) reported that 19.9% of U.S. children at age 2 years use a baby bottle at bedtime with contents other than water. In their review of the 1991 National Health Interview data set, they found that 9.3% of 3 year olds continued to use a bottle. Further, prolonged bottle use was most often associated with Hispanic ethnicity, poverty, urban residence, and low parental education levels. A more recent community based study found that 40% of 2 year olds continued to use a bottle as did 16% of 3 year olds and 8% of 4 year olds. In this smaller study (N = 191), the significant contributing factor for late bottle weaning was mothers' return to work. Their findings were derived from a sample of children with middle class, well-educated parents (Hammer, Bryson, & Agras, 1999).
A systematic review of published research on prolonged baby bottle use yielded several studies that confirmed a significant association between prolonged bottle feeding and/or bottle feeding at sleep time and the
Prolonged Baby Bottle Feeding: A Health Risk Factor
Abstract
Deysi is a 2-year-old girl who lives with her parents in a one-bedroom apartment. Her mother and father work outside of the home, approximately 10 hours/day. Child care is provided by a network of women who include licensed home-based providers and a variety of friends and extended family members. On most evenings, Deysi's father picks her up from the child care site and gives her a fresh bottle of chocolate-flavored milk for the 45- minute trip home. She usually falls asleep while drinking it; Deysi's parents see this routine as a comfort for their daughter that usually results in a most welcomed, quiet car ride home at the end of a busy day.
Maintaining Continuity of Care
Prolonged baby bottle use (beyond 12 months of age) is a common feeding practice that is often accompanied by recumbent feeding at nap or night-time sleep. Kaste and Gift (1995) reported that 19.9% of U.S. children at age 2 years use a baby bottle at bedtime with contents other than water. In their review of the 1991 National Health Interview data set, they found that 9.3% of 3 year olds continued to use a bottle. Further, prolonged bottle use was most often associated with Hispanic ethnicity, poverty, urban residence, and low parental education levels. A more recent community based study found that 40% of 2 year olds continued to use a bottle as did 16% of 3 year olds and 8% of 4 year olds. In this smaller study (N = 191), the significant contributing factor for late bottle weaning was mothers' return to work. Their findings were derived from a sample of children with middle class, well-educated parents (Hammer, Bryson, & Agras, 1999).
A systematic review of published research on prolonged baby bottle use yielded several studies that confirmed a significant association between prolonged bottle feeding and/or bottle feeding at sleep time and the
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