A New Intervention Method to Enhance Oral Feeding Ability in Premature Infants: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Indonesia is the fifth country with the highest number of premature infants in the world. Research has shown that as many as 40% to 70% of premature infants exhibit both immature and atypical feeding skills and those requiring respiratory support and those experiencing delays in beginning oral feeding are most often affected. Majority of premature infants have poorly developed suck and swallow mechanisms. The neurological immaturity, abnormal muscle tone, depressed oral reflexes, and difficulty in regulating state, can decrease the quality of infant\'s oral motor skills and the quantity of intake. For these reasons many high-risk infants are unable to tolerate oral feeding from birth and have difficulty making the transition from tube feedings to functional oral feeding. This transition to full oral feeding is an important competency for the infant to attain prior to discharge home. Delays in discharge are often secondary to feeding difficulties, leading to increased medical costs. Currently a number of treatment strategies exist to facilitate oral feeding in premature infants. These include environmental/physical modifications such as eliminating external stimuli during feedings, using therapeutic nipples to manipulate flow rate, positioning and swaddling to support the motor system and improve flexion, and oral motor intervention including Non-nutritive sucking (NNS) stimulation and oral/perioral stimulation. There are known various methods of oral and perioral stimulations. Recent study claimed that oral stimulations combined with non-nutritive sucking stimulation in premature infants for at least 10 days period could facilitate oral feeding ability. The therapy of new method intervention that will be studied in this research was a combination of physiological flexion in therapeutic positioning with specific swaddling techniques, oral stimulation, stimulation of synergistic movements, and stimulation of non-nutritive sucking using a special designed pacifier according to the size of premature infant\'s oral cavity. The objective of this study is to determine the time span required for premature infant to achieve safe and efficient oral feeding after new method intervention. Therefore, this new method expectedly can be used as an intervention to improve oral feeding ability in premature infant.