Abstract □ 163

Objective : To evaluate the influence of dummy on sleep arousability in healthy infants.

Patients and method : Two groups of healthy infants (median age 10 weeks) were polygraphically recorded during one night: 36 infants were regular dummy users and 20 never used a dummy. Thumb users or occasional dummy users were not included in the study. These infants were exposed to white noises of increasing intensities during REM sleep. Arousal thresholds were defined by the auditory stimuli needed to induce polygraphic arousals.

Results : Polygraphic arousals occurred for significantly more intense auditory stimuli in « non dummy » than in « dummy » users (p=.010). « Non dummy » users were more frequently breastfed than « dummy » users (p=.006). Comparing bottlefed infants, auditory thresholds were higher in « non dummy » than in « dummy » users (p=.003).

There were no significant difference on arousability in breastfed « non dummy » or « dummy » users. Comparing « non dummy » users, the bottlefed infants needed a more intense auditory stimuli to arouse than the breastfed infants (p=.049).

Conclusion : Infants showed higher arousal thresholds to auditory challenges when they never used a dummy and were bottlefed. Some authors have suggested that the use of dummy might reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. These findings could be relevant to mechanisms implicated in SIDS.