Making preemies work harder helps development
Neonates accustomed to getting milk from steeply inclined bottles might do better if you make them work a little harder, say researchers at the Children’s Nutritional Research Center in Houston.
Scientists at the center decided to test the hypothesis that giving preemies more control would help develop their sucking, breathing, and swallowing skills more quickly. They set up bottles with a special catheter to monitor whether the babies were learning those skills, then hooked bottles to a machine that measured the infants’ sucking and swallowing.
The infants were then given milk the traditional way with gravity doing most of the work and again with the bottles in a more horizontal position. When the preemies had to do more work for their milk, researchers found that they drank more per unit of time. Scientists also found that the babies controlled their intake better, drinking just what they wanted.
Scientists say the monitoring device may also help neonatologists evaluate how well their patients are progressing because doing well in bottle feeding is a sign that the infant’s other motor functions are developing properly.
The center is a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Baylor University College of Medicine in Dallas.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content