Careful attention to malocclusion in children with special needs leads to a considerable improvement in the quality of life. The present study analysed the prevalence of malocclusion in children with Down syndrome (DS) and cerebral palsy (CP) as well as associations with individual, socio-economic, and behavioural factors. A cross-sectional study was carried out that included 181 mothers and th...

BACKGROUND Non-nutritive sucking stimulation may anticipate the beginning of oral feeding and may influence the development of sucking in pre-term newborns. AIM To describe the development of the sucking pattern and the effects of NNS. METHOD Participants of this study were 95 preterm newborns (PTNB), adequate for their gestational age (GA), born with GAs inferior or equal to 33 weeks, rand...

This single-subject research study with replication evaluated the effect of daily occupational therapy on the nutritive and nonnutritive sucking behaviors of three high-risk, premature infants. At the time of entrance into the study, the infants were 34 to 35 weeks old and were documented poor feeders. Treatment consisted of individual, multimodal sensory stimulation, with emphasis on proprioce...

background: breastfeeding failures and oral feeding problems in preterm infants result in long-term health complications. in this study, therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effect of oral stimulation along with non-nutritive sucking (nns) on independent oral feeding initiation and weight gain in preterm infants. methods: this prospective randomized clinical trial was carried out at aliasghar ho...

UNLABELLED To assess if sensory-motor-oral stimulation and non-nutritive sucking gavage feeding enhances the oral feeding performance of preterm infants born between 26 and 32 weeks of gestational age. STUDY DESIGN Very low birthweight infants (n=98) were randomized into a experimental and control group. Preterm infants in the experimental group received sensory-motor-oral stimulation and non...

OBJECTIVE To determine the influence of non-nutritive sucking and oral stimulation programs on breastfeeding rates at discharge, at 3 and at 6 months of corrected age in preterm infants with very low birth weight. METHODS Preterm infants were randomized into experimental and control groups. Ninety-eight preterm infants were randomized and 96 remained in the study until reaching the corrected ...

OBJECTIVE to determine the prevalence of mouth breathing and to associate the history of breastfeeding with breathing patterns in children. METHODS this was an observational study with 252 children of both genders, aged 30 to 48 months, who participated in a dental care program for mothers and newborns. As an instrument of data collection, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to t...

BACKGROUND Non-nutritive sucking is used during gavage feeding and in the transition from gavage to breast/bottle feeding in preterm infants. The rationale for this intervention is that non-nutritive sucking facilitates the development of sucking behaviour and improves digestion of enteral feedings. Non-nutritive sucking has been considered to be a benign intervention, although it has the poten...

Due to neurologic immaturity, premature infants must be fed by tube until approximately 34 gestational weeks and many have subsequent problems with transition to oral feeding. In the United States, infants whose only problem is ineffective feeding remain in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at an average cost of $2000/day until independent nippling with regular weight gain is achieved. This is a...