Introduction:

The newborn's mouth is immediately contaminated with maternal microorganisms at birth. Caufield determined that the average age of colonization with Mutants streptococci (MS) for American children was 26 months old. Latin American studies indicate that it occurs at an age between 14.9 and 18 months old.

Objectives:

To identify the time of MS acquisition and colonization in a population of Uruguayan children and to relate it with various child and maternal factors. To establish the time needed to collect the sample and its loss.

Methods:

Observational, longitudinal prospective study, of 83 mother-child pairs from a medical center in Montevideo. From the 83 pairs examined, 20 completed the study. Children between 0-9 months old, with/without teeth, whose first saliva sample was negative for MS, were included.

Results:

The mean age of MS acquisition was 16.4 months (± 4.13), and colonization occurred at 18.6 months (± 3.80) of age. The sample loss was 71.42%.

Conclusions:

The colonization found was similar to that found by Florio (Brazil) but showed significant differences with Caufield's results (USA).

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