Using devices to upregulate nonnutritive swallowing in typically developing infants

Area of Science:

• Pediatric feeding and swallowing
• Infant development
• Sensory stimulation

Background:

• Developing effective oral feeding skills is crucial for infant growth.
• Nonnutritive swallowing plays a role in oral feeding development.
• Understanding sensory stimuli that enhance swallowing is important.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of a pacifier and laryngeal vibration on nonnutritive swallowing rates in infants.
• To compare the impact of these stimuli across two infant age groups (2-4 months and 7-9 months).
• To assess the effect of laryngeal vibration on infant respiration.

Main Methods:

• Compared swallowing rates in 2-4 month and 7-9 month old infants under three conditions: rest, pacifier use, and laryngeal vibration.
• Measured nonnutritive swallowing rate during 10-minute intervals for each condition.
• Assessed respiratory changes by comparing mean respiratory cycle length during vibration versus rest.

Main Results:

• Both pacifier use and laryngeal vibration significantly increased nonnutritive swallowing rates, doubling them in both infant age groups.
• No significant changes in respiratory cycle length were observed during laryngeal vibration.
• Swallowing rates increased similarly in younger (mean 3m 16d) and older (mean 8m 8d) infants.

Conclusions:

• Nonnutritive sucking and laryngeal vibration are effective in enhancing swallowing frequency in infants.
• Laryngeal vibration offers a potential non-oral method to stimulate swallowing, which could aid infants with feeding difficulties.
• Further research should explore these stimuli for infants with immature swallowing skills.