Breastfeeding vs Bottle feeding
Dental caries · Children with exclusively primary dentition (age ≤71 months)
In a meta-analysis of two cross-sectional studies, breastfed children had lower odds of dental caries than bottle-fed children (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.80); certainty was not formally graded.
2 findings from 1 review
- Breast and Bottle Feeding as Risk Factors for Dental Caries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2015 All outcomesHospital and health centre (Kuwait); suburban kindergartens (China)OR 0.43 [0.23, 0.80]2 studies · 620 participantsGRADE not reported
- Breast and Bottle Feeding as Risk Factors for Dental Caries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2015 All outcomesKindergartens, hospitals and health centres; Kuwait, China, Syria, Sri Lanka, South Africa and ItalyFour studies showed that bottle fed children had more dental caries (p<0.05), while three studies found no such association (p>0.05); the review concluded that breastfeeding can protect against dental caries in early…7 studiesGRADE not reported