A study of pregnant women's knowledge of children's feeding practice as a risk factor for early childhood caries.

AIM

The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge pregnant women have of infant and baby's feeding as a risk factor for early childhood caries.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 200 pregnant women from Plovdiv and the region aged 18 to 41 with different educational backgrounds. A questionnaire was administered to all participants with question related to feeding babies and small children. The results were analysed using alternative analysis, non-parametric (chi2) test, Student t-test and graphic analysis. P < 0.05 was adopted as the level of significance of null hypothesis.

RESULTS

The results show a low level of the knowledge pregnant women have of feeding as a potential risk factor for early childhood caries. A great percentage of the women with second and subsequent pregnancies gave wrong answers to at least one of the questions in the questionnaire.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of the study there is much reason to think that many pregnant women have inadequate knowledge of infant feeding. Introduction of educational programmes is essential with the purpose of raising the mothers' health care awareness in relation to children's dental health.