Breathing and sucking during feeding in the newborn

Eighteen normal full-time infants aged from 1-10 days were fed both normal saline and distilled water from a conventional feeding bottle. Fifty-four sets of observations were made when 44 infants were fed both cow's milk (Half Cream Cow & Gate) and expressed human milk. During feeding, measurements were made of breathing, sucking, and the flow of milk from a feeding bottle which incorporated an electromagnetic flowmeter transducer. Integration of the flow of milk measured the volume of milk swallowed by the baby. The results suggest that the patterns of feeding and breathing differ in some infants when different fluids are given to them.