Development of feeding skills in preterm infants: a critical literature review

ABSTRACT Infants born prematurely have problems in developing feeding skills due to their immaturity. To describe this, a critical review of national and international literature was carried out from May to September 2016. The information was reviewed from Scielo, Pubmed and Cochrane, and also specialized journals using the following key words: “ Feeding development preterm ” , “ feeding skills preterm infants ” , “ feeding transition preterm ” , “ lumpy food babies ” , “ solid food preterm ” , “ transition solid food infant ” , “ preterm children weaning food ” , “ solids in preterm infants ” , also searched in Spanish and Portuguese. Publications were included if they shared similar purpose as the present revision, and published in the last 5 years, encompassing articles of systematic literature review or researches which studied preterm children aged between 0 and 10. Studies showed that transition food started earlier in preterm infants, who also showed more feeding problems. It is necessary to have common criteria in terms of assessment methodologies in order to be able to characterize this group in a better way. Parents of preterm infants would benefit from advise and information about developing eating skills, resulting in earlier intervention and management of feeding and eating problems.RESUMEN Debido a la inmadurez que presentan los lactantes prematuros, el desarrollo de habilidades de alimentaci ón se ve interferido. Mediante la rev...
Source: Revista CEFAC - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research