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Author Spotlight: Implications of Non-Nutritive Sucking on Speech Emergence and Infant Development
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Author Spotlight: Implications of Non-Nutritive Sucking on Speech Emergence and Infant Development

Published on: April 19, 2024

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The Effect of Suckling and Swallowing Exercises During the Transition to Oral Feeding in Premature Infants:

E Gökdemir1, A K Doğan

  • 1Department of Nursing, Istanbul Medipol University, Institute of Health Science, İstanbul, Turkey.

Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice
|June 25, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Suck-swallow exercises significantly improved oral feeding skills in premature infants. This intervention is recommended for neonatal intensive care units to support infant development.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal care
  • Pediatric feeding interventions
  • Infant development

Background:

  • Preterm infants often have underdeveloped oral structures, leading to feeding difficulties.
  • Supporting the development of sucking reflexes is crucial for premature babies' oral feeding success.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of suck-swallow exercises on the oral feeding transition in premature infants.
  • To evaluate the efficacy of a targeted exercise program for improving feeding skills in preterm neonates.

Main Methods:

  • A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 82 premature infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
  • The intervention group (n=41) received 12 minutes of daily suck-swallow exercises for 14 days.
  • The Early Feeding Skills Assessment Tool was used to measure outcomes, with data analyzed using SPSS22.

Main Results:

  • Infants in the intervention group showed significantly higher post-test scores in respiratory regulation, oral motor function, swallowing coordination, feeding participation, and physiological stability.
  • These improvements were statistically significant (P < 0.005) compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

  • Suck-swallow exercises effectively enhance oral feeding skills in premature infants.
  • The study recommends incorporating these exercises into neonatal intensive care unit protocols to support feeding development.
Abstract

Keywords:
Feedingpremature infantsuckling–swallowing exercise

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