Changes in nutritive sucking during a feed in two-day-and thirty-day-old infants

Twenty-four infants were given a standard formula at 2 days and 1 month of life. The amount consumed, the feeding time, and the sucking amplitude were examined in 1-min trials. The data indicate that while the volume of intake did not change the feeding time decreased over the first month. Moreover, while sucking time and amplitude were independent of each other at the initiation of a feed at two days, they were correlated when the feed began at 30 days of age. It is, therefore, concluded that nutritive sucking efficiency changes and improves in the first month of life. Finally, a comparative analysis of the bottle feeding data from this study and data from two other published studies on breast feeding suggest the emergence of a regulatory mechanism that modulates the pattern of intake.