Acta paediatrica
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Interventions to improve the oral feeding performance of preterm infants.
Preterm infants have difficulty oral feeding. We hypothesized that a specific sucking and swallowing exercises vs. no intervention accelerate the attainment of independent oral feeding through a faster maturation of infants' oral feeding skills (OFS). ⋯ The swallowing exercise is an efficacious intervention in facilitating the attainment of independent oral feeding, but not the sucking exercise. We speculate that the swallowing benefit resulted from an accelerated maturation of infants' OFS levels.