A self-paced oral feeding system that enhances preterm infants’ oral feeding skills

摘要

AimVery low birth weight (VLBW) infants have difficulty transitioning to independent oral feeding, be they breast- or bottle-feeding. We developed a ‘self-paced’ feeding system that eliminates the natural presence of the positive hydrostatic pressure and internal vacuum build-up within a bottle during feeding. Such system enhanced these infants’ oral feeding performance as monitored by overall transfer (OT; % ml taken/ml prescribed), rate of transfer (RT; ml/min over an entire feeding). This study hypothesizes that the improvements observed in these infants resulted from their ability to use more mature oral feeding skills (OFS).