The oral motor development of low-birth-weight infants who underwent orotracheal intubation during the neonatal period
J. A. Bier, A. Ferguson, C. Cho, W. Oh and B. R. Vohr
Department of Pediatrics, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence 02903.
OBJECTIVE--To investigate the potential development of oral motor problems
following prolonged orotracheal intubation in low-birth-weight infants.
DESIGN--Prospective observational. SETTING--Tertiary-care hospital.
PATIENTS--Fifty-one low-birth-weight infants and 10 full-term infants
divided into three groups--group 1 with 15 low-birth-weight infants (<
or = 1250 g) who had been intubated for more than 1 week; group 2 with 36
low-birth-weight infants who had been intubated for 1 week or less; and
group 3 with 10 full-term control infants. INTERVENTIONS--None.
MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS--Oral motor assessments of nutritive sucking were
compared at corrected ages of term and 3 months. The results showed that
low-birth-weight infants with prolonged intubation had significantly poorer
sucking abilities at both term and 3 months. The number of days of oxygen
use and the postnatal age (weeks) at which nipple feeding was begun were
the most powerful predictors of sucking ability at term (P < .001),
whereas the number of days of orotracheal intubation and gestational age at
birth were the most powerful predictors of sucking ability at 3 months (P
< .001).
