Mahjabeen Khan, Nadia Sultan Ali, Nasreen Qamar, Amyna Sajwani, Mashal Butt, Samrin Riaz.
Pattern of oral health among breastfed infants (6- 24 months).
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;21(3):161-6.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine the oral health status of breastfed infants (6 to 24) months and the associated risk factors for poor oral health of lowsocial groups inKarachi Pakistan. METHODOLOGY This is an observational study and involves the recruitment of 910 infants. The infants were from disadvantaged communities from rural area of Gadap Town in Karachi, Pakistan. Data on feeding practices and infant’s oral health was collected. The data was analyzed on Statistical package for social sciences windows version 15 RESULTS The oral examination of infants had resulted in 59.2 %good oral health. Breastfeeding practices were observed as exclusive 400 (44%) and predominant 360 (39.6%). The study found a significant association between oral health and exclusive and predominant breastfeeding practices with p-value less than or equal to ≤ 0.05. The risk factors associated with poor oral health were infant`s age, male gender, maternal body mass index, exclusive or predominant breastfeeding. CONCLUSION The good oral healthwas found in two third of breastfed infants between six to 24 months of age and the associated risk factors for poor oral health in lowsocial class include lowmaternal bodymass index, infants` age,male infants and pretermbabies.

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