Abstract
The goal of this study was to compare how infants' non-nutritive suck (NNS) changes throughout a suck sample. Fifty-four full-term infants (57% male) completed this study at, on average, 3.03 (SD .31) months of age. These infants sucked on our custom research pacifier for approximately five minutes. Infants produced, on average, 14.50 suck bursts during the sample. NNS data was pooled across subjects and breakpoint analyses were completed to determine if there were changes in their NNS patterning. Breakpoints were evident for NNS cycles per burst at burst numbers 18 and 34, and for amplitude (cmH20) at burst numbers 18 and 29. No breakpoints were present for NNS frequency. Infants exhibit changes in their suck physiology across burst number. When assessing suck, developmental specialists should observe more than one suck burst to attain a more valid and appropriate scope of the infant's suck ability.
Highlights
Non-nutritive suck, or non-nutritive suck (NNS), is a suck pattern characterized by the absence of nutrient delivery [1]
It is clear that NNS is an important early clinical marker, yet there is no standardization of its measurement nor understanding of how NNS changes within a single suck sample
While no prior studies have examined structural changes in NNS throughout a suck sample, prior work in the oral feeding literature suggests that nutritive sucking rate declines throughout a feed in full-term [20,21,22] and preterm infants [23]
Summary
Non-nutritive suck, or NNS, is a suck pattern characterized by the absence of nutrient delivery [1]. NNS physiology has a stereotypical burst-pause pattern, with an intra-burst frequency of 2 Hz and each burst containing 6–12 suck cycles [3]. It is clear that NNS is an important early clinical marker, yet there is no standardization of its measurement nor understanding of how NNS changes within a single suck sample. The goal of this study was to examine how infants’ NNS changes throughout a suck sample at 3-months of age. While no prior studies have examined structural changes in NNS throughout a suck sample, prior work in the oral feeding literature suggests that nutritive sucking rate declines throughout a feed in full-term [20,21,22] and preterm infants [23]
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