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Feeding behaviour in infants
1Institute for Care of Mother and Child, Prague.
Insights
This study tracks infant feeding behaviors, observing sucking, breathing, and swallowing patterns. Findings suggest feeding is crucial for early social development and cognitive needs influence infant behavior.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Neurology
- Infant Behavior
Background:
- Infant feeding involves complex physiological and behavioral patterns.
- Understanding these patterns is crucial for assessing infant development and neurological health.
- Feeding situations offer unique insights into early social interaction and cognitive development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the physiological patterns and developmental changes in infant sucking, breathing, and swallowing.
- To analyze behavioral activities during feeding and their developmental trajectory.
- To explore the diagnostic potential of polygraphic recordings for feeding problems and the role of feeding in social-emotional development.
Main Methods:
- Polygraphic recordings of sucking, breathing, swallowing, oculomotor activity, EEG, and vocalization.
- Simultaneous video-recording of infant behavior.
- Observations across three feeding-related situations (before, during, after feeding) at multiple infant ages (2nd, 10th, 18th, 26th weeks).
Main Results:
- Detailed descriptions of physiological patterns and developmental changes in sucking, breathing, and swallowing.
- Infants exhibit increased eye movements and alertness during feeding, not sleep.
- Feeding is identified as a critical period for developing social interactions and appears to shift towards cognitive influences later in infancy.
Conclusions:
- Sucking, breathing, and swallowing are considered early fine motor activities with diagnostic potential for neurological issues.
- Feeding plays a significant role in the development of social interactions from the earliest weeks of life.
- Infant behavior post-feeding is influenced by cognitive needs rather than solely the feeding cycle by the second quarter of the first year.
Abstract:
20 healthy full-term infants have been studied in their 2nd, 10th, 18th and 26th weeks of life in three standard situations: before feeding, in the course of milk drinking and after feeding. A polygraphic record of sucking, breathing, swallowing, the oculomotor activity, the EEG and vocalization has been taken simultaneously with a video-recording of the infant's behaviour. Physiological patterns and developmental changes of sucking, breathing and swallowing are described. These activities are considered as fine motor activity of the earliest age. The possibility of using polygraphic recordings of these variables for the diagnosis of the neurological syndrome called feeding problems is discussed. Further, behavioural activities in above mentioned three situations and their developmental changes, are described. None of the infants, not even the smallest ones, were asleep in the beginning of feeding. On the contrary, their eyes were open and there were more eye movements during feeding than in other situations. In the authors' opinions, the situation of feeding has, especially in the first days and weeks of life, a special significance for the development of social interactions between the infant and the person taking care of him. The behaviour of a regularly fed infant in the second quarter of his first year seems to be no longer influenced in the periods proceeding and following the feeding act by the prandial cycle but rather by cognitive needs. The influences involved in the regulation of the behaviour of the youngest infants are discussed.