Prevalence of pacifier-sucking habits and successful methods to eliminate them--a preliminary study.

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to verify the prevalence of nutritive (breast-feeding and bottle-feeding) and non-nutritive (pacifier) sucking habits, the methods used to eliminate them, and success of these methods. METHODS To collect the data, 502 questionnaires were distributed to parents of 0- to 6-year-old children. RESULTS Bottle-feeding was used by 83% and pacifier by 63% of children. The professional's explanation, the use of substances on the pacifier, the abrupt interruption of the habit, and parents' explanations were efficient in 90%, 80%, 64%, and 38% of the cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Sucking habits had a high prevalence in this sample. An indirect linear relationship between breast-feeding and pacifier use demonstrated that the more the child was breast-fed, the less the pacifier was used. The most efficient method to end the pacifier-sucking habit was professional explanation; however, it was used less often.