♥Study Aims This study will exam feeding behavior and energy balance of infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) from newborn hospitalization to 12 months of age. 

The specific aims of the study are as follows:

1)    To establish which aspects of feeding performance (e.g. suck/swallow/breathe coordination, temporal patterning of sucking with meals, suck pressure generation, adaptation to variation in flow rate) are most subject to disruption in CHD infants after corrective or palliative surgery.

2)    To determine infants' pattern of oropharyngeal adaptation to variations in the flow rate through an artificial nipple, and whether flow rate adjustment represents a viable strategy for improving meal size outcomes.

3)    To determine the relative contributions of disrupted feeding organization and (potentially elevated) energy expenditure to unfavorable growth outcomes, i.e.

(i) Relate disrupted feeding to growth.

(ii) Relate energy expenditure to growth.

(iii) Integrate energetic and feeding-performance     characteristics in a predictive model of failure to thrive   in infants with CHD.