Oral habits, if persist beyond certain developmental age, can pose great harm to the developing teeth, occlusion, and surrounding oral tissues. In the formative years, almost all children engage in some non-nutritive sucking habits. Clinicians, by proper differential diagnosis and thorough understanding of natural growth and developmental processes, should take a decision for intervening. This ...

The objective of the present study was to determine the oral motor capacity and the feeding performance of preterm newborn infants when they were permitted to start oral feeding. This was an observational and prospective study conducted on 43 preterm newborns admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of UFSM, RS, Brazil. Exclusion criteria were the presence of head and neck malformations, ge...

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...

OBJECTIVES Sucking problems in preterm infants can be specified by means of visual observation. The Neonatal Oral-Motor Assessment Scale (NOMAS) is the visual observation method most commonly used to assess the non-nutritive sucking (NNS) and nutritive sucking (NS) skills of infants up to approximately 8 weeks postterm. During the first 2 min of a regular feeding the infant's sucking skill is a...

This study evaluated the effect of breast- and bottle-feeding duration on the age of pacifier use persistence. Questionnaires (n = 723) with information on nutritive and nonnutritive sucking habits of children aged 3-6 years were assessed. The sample was divided according to breastfeeding duration: G1 - non-breastfed, G2 - up to 3 months, G3 - discontinued between 4 and 6 months, G4 - discontin...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of oral sucrose on procedural pain, and on biochemical markers of adenosine triphosphate utilization and oxidative stress in preterm neonates with mild to moderate respiratory distress. STUDY DESIGN Preterm neonates with a clinically required heel lance that met study criteria (n = 49) were randomized into three groups: (1) control (n = 24), (2) heel lance tre...

Objectives: To verify the patterns of breastfeeding and frequency of non-nutritive sucking habits in children at Chã de Areia Family Health Unit (FHU) in Mogeiro-PB. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study involving 71 mothers of children aged 0 to 24 months. The instrument was a structured interview, being performed by a single professional. Results: We found that 67 (94.4%) children were...

BACKGROUND Postural drainage chest physiotherapy in infants with cystic fibrosis (CF) exacerbates gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) and may contribute to a more rapid deterioration in lung function. AIMS To compare standard postural drainage chest physiotherapy (SPT) and a modified physiotherapy regimen (MPT) without head-down tilt, with regard to GOR, arousal state, and cardiorespiratory funct...