Possible Associations Between Breathing Patterns and Infant Feeding History

Abstract

Purpose: To determine whether there are peculiarities in the feeding history in 3-year-and-11-month to six-year-and-five-month children that may be associated with the breathing pattern, oral or nasal predominant, seeking a possible indicator that leads to preventive guidelines. Methods: 85 children of both sexes took part, divided into two groups. G1: 28 children with orofacial characteristics of breathing pattern predominantly oral and G2: 57 children without these characteristics. The exclusion criteria were neurological deficits and cognitive problems, dentofacial deformities and having a cold on the day of the assessment. The following procedures were performed: direct observation of the orofacial characteristics in order to determine the predominant breathing pattern; a questionnaire to parents about the breathing difficulty, oral posture, presence of snoring, as well as the general feeding history of children. Results: Most children were breastfed. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups regarding to breastfeeding, time of onset and type of food, preferences for texture, flavor, presentation and ritual power. Conclusions: There were not found peculiarities in the feeding history that could correlate with the predominant breathing patterns. Therefore no indicator that would show possible preventive guidelines was recognized.