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Enhanced sucking engagement by preterm infants during intermittent gavage feedings
Insights
Preterm infants show increased non-nutritive sucking (NNS) during intermittent tube feedings. This suggests NNS in these infants is influenced by stomach cues and temperature changes from feeding.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal Physiology
- Developmental Pediatrics
Background:
- Preterm infants often require nasogastric tube feeding.
- Non-nutritive sucking (NNS) is crucial for infant development and feeding readiness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of intermittent nasogastric feedings on NNS in preterm infants.
- To determine if NNS patterns change during different phases of tube feeding.
Main Methods:
- Recorded NNS activities in preterm infants (gestational age ≤ 32 weeks) during intermittent nasogastric feedings.
- Utilized pacifiers and analyzed sucking patterns before, during, and after gavage feeding.
- Compared NNS in infants on intermittent versus continuous feeding schedules.
Main Results:
- NNS activities significantly increased during intermittent nasogastric feeding compared to pre- and post-feeding periods.
- Proportions of sucking engagement, burst duration, sucks per burst, and individual suck duration all increased markedly.
- Infants on continuous nasogastric feedings showed no significant change in NNS.
Conclusions:
- Intermittent nasogastric feeding stimulates increased NNS in preterm infants.
- NNS engagement appears to be influenced by physiological cues like stomach distension and temperature changes associated with tube feeding.
Abstract:
Non-nutritive sucking (NNS) activities were recorded in preterm infants born at gestational age 32 weeks or less during nasogastric feedings. Six infants on intermittent nasogastric feeding schedules were tested with a pacifier in their mouth for three 5-minute periods (before, during, and after gavage feeding). Analysis of the recordings revealed that NNS activities increased markedly during the intermittent nasogastric feeding schedule. The overall proportions of sucking engagement, the mean duration of sucking burst, the mean number of sucks per burst, and the mean duration of individual sucks within a burst increased markedly during gavage feeding compared with both pre-test and post-test periods. NNS by a group of five infants on continuous nasogastric feedings was similar to the pre-test and post-test of the infants on the intermittent nasogastric feeding schedule. These results indicate that in the context of intermittent nasogastric feedings, NNS engagement in tube-fed infants depends on stomach cues and/or temperature changes associated with tube feedings.