Can bottles and Pacifiers cause speech defects?

Via Science Daily, a study in BMC Pediatrics says "the use of bottles, pacifiers and other sucking behaviors apart from breast-feeding may increase the risk of subsequent speech disorders in young children."

The team combined parents' reports of infant feeding and sucking behaviors with evaluations of their child's speech. They found that delaying bottle use until the child was at least 9 months old reduced the risk of later developing speech disorders while children who sucked their fingers, or used a pacifier for more than 3 years were three times more likely to develop speech impediments.