Comparison of the rate of exclusive breast-feeding between pacifier sucker and non-sucker infants

Objective: Pacifier as a non-nutritive and comforting object instead of mother’s breast is usedwidespread in civilised societies. The most possible risks of this habit are increased incidence oforal thrush; dental deformities, recurrent acute otitis media and dental caries, but there are stillsome reports on its beneficial effects. We carried out this study to compare the rate of exclusivebreast-feeding during the first six months of life between the pacifier sucker and non-suckerinfants.Material Methods: The study was designed as a case-control study on infants who came tooutpatient clinic in a primary health care center, affiliated to Babol University of medicalsciences during 2003-4. Inclusion criteria were: infants aged 6-12 months, born at term vianormal vaginal delivery with a normal birth weight. We divided them into pacifier suckers ascase group (n=100) and non-suckers as control group (n=120) by frequency matching. Pacifiersuckers were given by their mothers a pacifier to suck as a soothing object before 2 month oflife. Outcome characteristics including exclusive breast-feeding, rate of early weaning andsubstitution of mother milk with a non-mother milk in infants who were pacifier suckers werecompared with those of the infants who were not used to suck a pacifier. A p-value less than0.05 was considered being significant.Findings: Success rate of exclusive breast-feeding in pacifier suckers was 30% (n=30), in nonsuckers64% (n=77), (CI: 2.3-7.3; OR=1.24; P 0.001). The rate of early cessation of breastfeedingamong pacifier suckers was 16% and non-suckers 0.01% (p 0.001).Conclusion: To promote successful breast-feeding and to reduce early cessation of breastfeeding,the use of pacifiers should be avoided or restricted.