Effects of the abdominal massage combined with body position intervention on the gastrointestinal function of prematures

Abstract

Objective To explore the effects of abdominal massage combined with body position intervention on the gastrointestinal function of premature infants. Methods Totally 150 cases of prematures with nasogastric tube feeding were selected as the research object from June 2015 to June 2016. According to random number table, 150 patients were divided into the control group (n=75) and the observation group (n=75) . Patients in the control group received routine care and patients in the observation group received abdominal massage combined with body position intervention on the basis of routine care. The feeding situation and the incidence of feeding complications between two groups were compared. Results The drained time of meconium, time of reaching full enteral feeding, the time of returning to birth weight, stomach tube retention time of patients in the observation group were shorter than those of control group (P<0.05) , and the times of daily defecation and milk input were more than those of control group (P<0.05) . The incidence of feeding complications including vomiting, gastric retention, bloating, constipation and apnea in the observation group were lower than the data in the control group (P<0.05) . Conclusions Abdominal massage combined with body position intervention can improve gastrointestinal function of children and can reduce the incidence of feeding complications of children. Key words: Abdominal massage; Body position intervention; Prematures; Gastrointestinal function