Do orally-directed behaviors mediate the relationship between behavioral state and nutritive sucking in preterm infants?

Despite the advancement of assessment and interventions to facilitate oral feeding, many infants born preterm are challenged to achieve full oral feeding [1]. Although infant behavioral state is predictive of nutritive sucking patterns [2 –4], less is known regarding the role of orally-directed behaviors (e.g. mouthing, tonguing, rooting, hand-to-mouth, sucking-on-hand) in facilitating nutritive sucking patterns. Orally-directed behaviors are a sensitive indicator of the infant's behavioral organization [5,6] and infants exhibit th ese behaviors to communicate their readiness to feed.

Source: Early Human Development - April 18, 2017 Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: Rosemary White-Traut, Li Liu, Kathleen Norr, Krisitin Rankin, Suzann K. Campbell, Thao Griffith, Rohitkumar Vasa, Victoria Geraldo, Barbara Medoff-Cooper Source Type: research