Infant discomfort may have a connection to maternal oral health

The researchers surveyed 421 participants to collect data on socio-demographics, infant discomfort, self-reported maternal oral health values, self-reported maternal periodontal status and maternal OHRQoL. The participants were Portuguese-speaking mothers of full-term infants aged 2–12 weeks. In order to assesses the severity of an infant’s crying and its impact on the parents’ quality of life through the survey, they adapted and validated the Infant Colic Questionnaire for Portuguese.

The findings indicated that increased infant discomfort correlated with reduced prioritisation of professional dental care among mothers, particularly in cases where the mothers self-reported having poor periodontal health. Self-reported periodontitis was associated with deteriorated maternal OHRQoL across all areas of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14, including physical, psychological and social aspects. The results suggest that mothers of infants with greater perceived discomfort may experience compromised oral health, influenced by psychological stressors associated with infant discomfort.

The results also identified that infant age and parental educational level, employment status and physical pain were significant predictors of perceived infant colic. Mothers with younger infants and unemployed or highly educated mothers reported higher colic-related stress. This points to the multifactorial nature of colic, involving both child and parental factors.

These findings emphasise the value of integrating oral health into postpartum care and suggest that comprehensive health strategies should address both maternal and infant well-being to improve overall family health outcomes.

The study, titled “Perceived infant discomfort linked to lower maternal oral health quality of life: Results from a cross-sectional study”, was published online on 5 October 2024 in Journal of Clinical Medicine.

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