lara ferris's List: Flinders Paediatric Clinic

• The main finding of this study reveals that the breast-feeding protects against the occurrence of non-nutritive sucking habits during early childhood. Marital status was the only sociodemographic variable associated with sucking habits; however, when the two types of sucking habits (i.e., pacifier use or thumb sucking) were considered separately, no association was observed
• Breast-feeding provides multiple nutritional, immunological, and psychological benefits to the infant in its first year of life. Systematic reviews have shown strong evidence in favor of this practice ^{[26],[27],[28]} In addition, it seems that the act of breast-feeding has positive effects on the development of an infant's oral cavity: there is improved shaping of the hard palate, resulting in proper alignment of teeth and fewer problems with malocclusions.

• The suckling (i.e., front-back tongue movement when stimulus placed in mouth), swallowing, and tongue (i.e., front-back tongue movement elicited by touch to the lips or tongue) reflexes assist the infant in obtaining and managing fluid expressed from the mother’s nipple or the bottle nipple.
• The infant begins to develop control of the suckling response between 2 and 3 months
• The gag reflex (i.e., touch to the back half of the tongue or back wall of the pharynx results in mouth opening, head-neck extension, rapid elevation of the soft palate, as well as elevation of the larynx and diaphragm) prevents nasal regurgitation of liquids and the swallowing of items that are too large. While the gag response usually persists throughout life, it can change over time depending on the individual’s oral experiences. It can be elicited at birth by touching the posterior three-fourths of the tongue (Morris & Klein, 1987). As the infant has oral experiences with fingers, mouth toys, food, and liquid the gag is usually elicited further back on the tongue and in the pharynx

  • gag reflex
• A number of typically developing children have difficulty nursing to obtain adequate sustenance. This is often related to jaw weakness or another frequently inherited anatomical difference. Some of these infants have low-normal muscle tone and their oral reflexes are somewhat hyporesponsive. Therefore, it is extremely important to evaluate the nursing infant’s oral reflexes and to capitalize on the presence of these reflexes to assist the infant in developing adequate nursing

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