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Introduction: Early childhood caries, seen in infants and young children, is an infectious, multifactorial disease that is also caused by feeding practices like: bedtime bottle feeding, “at will” breastfeeding, and frequent intake of sugary snacks and drinks. It has impact on quality of life, increases the risk of caries in the permanent dentition, and promotes inequalities in oral health.

Objective: To assess pattern and severity of early childhood caries and its association with feeding habits in children in Nepal.

Materials and Method: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from May to October 2021 using a structured questionnaire to determine the feeding habits of 200 children between two to six years of age. The WHO criteria were used to calculate dental caries and severity was established from the criteria given by American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

Result: Mean dmft was 6±4.33 and 110 (55%) children had severe early childhood caries. The caries severity increased significantly with age of child. Upper anterior teeth were the most affected while the lower anterior were least affected regions depicting a nursing caries pattern. The children who were breast-fed for more than one year (157, 78.5%) had a significantly higher mean dmft in the upper anterior region which suggests a nursing bottle type pattern.

Conclusion: The present study revealed that more than half children under six years of age had S-ECC, and a positive significant association was noted in the duration of breastfeeding beyond one year of age to ECC in the upper anterior teeth region.

Early childhood caries; feeding habits; pattern; primary teeth; severe early childhood caries.