The sucking behavior of premature infants at 40 weeks of age is a significant, independent predictor of risk for future neuro-developmental delays, according to a Penn Nursing study that evaluated developmental outcomes at an earlier age than previous studies (12 vs. 18 months) and with a sample of infants who were considerably more premature (28 vs. 34 weeks).
“This precedent encourages the potential of a nutritive sucking assessment as part of a standardized early screen for developmental risk,” says Penn Nursing professor and lead author of the study, Barbara Medoff-Cooper, PhD, CRNP, RN, FAAN.
The $3.2 million study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, examined 105 preterm infants who had developmental outcomes measured at 6 or 12 months. All infants received a 5-minute sucking test at 34 and at 40 weeks postmenstrual age, PMA, with outcomes evaluated at 6 and/or 12 months corrected gestational age via the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. The 6- and 12-month values for the Psychomotor Developmental Index and Mental Developmental Index of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development were significantly below the normative levels established for infants delivered at term.
“Given the present lack of clinical guidelines for early identification of pre-term infants at greatest risk for developmental delays and the scale of the present ‘screening gap,’ it is important that all potentially useful approaches – analysis of neonatal feeding organization among them – be further explored,” explains Dr. Medoff-Cooper.
In the study, sucking organization was characterized by three parameters: number of sucks emitted, average number of sucks per burst, and the session-average of the sucking pressure peaks. The pattern of sucking was shown to be an even better predictor of developmental outcomes than perinatal cranial ultrasound and other neonatal measurements taken in the study.
The findings of the study were published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.
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