OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of oral support on feeding efficiency in preterm infants who were identified by the medical team as poor feeders. METHOD Thirteen premature infants between 34 and 40 weeks' postconceptional age were selected from a group of infants at Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. They were fed twice within...

Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed November 2010 Vol 95 No 6 F388 Confi dence in the prediction of neurodevelopmental outcome by cranial ultrasound and MRI in preterm infants Phumza Nongena,1,2 Ash Ederies,1,2 Denis V Azzopardi,1,2 A David Edwards1,2 together with 95% CIs for the estimates. These data should indicate to clinicians how much confi dence can be placed in a prognosis assigned after n...

OBJECTIVE: To review the recent medical literature on nutrition of preterm infants, focusing on practical aspects that are relevant to pediatricians and neonatologists. SOURCES: An extensive review of the related literature using Medline, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Best Evidence was performed. SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS: There is compelling evidence that early nutritional practice...

BACKGROUND Preparing families and preterm infants for discharge is relatively unstructured in many UK neonatal units (NNUs). Family-centred neonatal care and discharge planning are recommended but variable. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS Qualitative interviews with 37 parents of infants in NNUs, and 18 nursing staff and 5 neonatal consultants explored their views of discharge planning and perception...

This study tested the relationship between preterm infant-mother attachment patterns and sociability of 3-year-old children with an unfamiliar female adult. The subjects in the study (N=48) were part of a longitudinal investigation of the developmental sequeloe of high-risk preterm birth. Results supported the study’s motor hypotheses that 3.year-olds’ behaviors and affective states vary in occ...

The validity of three methods (last menstrual period [LPM], Ballard and Dubowitz scores) for assessment of gestational age for premature infants in a low-resource setting was assessed, using antenatal ultrasound as the gold standard. It was hypothesized that LMP and other methods would perform similarly in determining postnatal gestational age. Concordance analysis was applied to data on 355 ne...

Twins born after 30 weeks gestation were studied. One twin was reared with a water pillow for head support for 36 days and retained a more rounded head shape, comparable to the normal configuration at birth. The other twin had standard neonatal care and developed the scaphocephalic head typical of most ex-preterm infants. It is suggested that water pillows constitute a simple method of reducing...

BACKGROUND The study deals with the characteristics of temperament of preterm infants during their preschool age in order to not only investigate likely "difficult or problematic profiles", guided by impairments driven by their preterm birth, but also to provide guidelines for the activation of interventions of prevention, functional to improve the quality of preterm infant's life. METHODS Th...

We tested healthy preterm (born near 28 +/- 2 weeks of gestational age) and full-term infants at various different ages. We compared the two populations on the development of a language acquisition landmark, namely, the ability to distinguish the native language from a rhythmically similar one. This ability is attained 4 months after birth in healthy full-term infants. We measured the induced g...

Preterm infants develop the skills necessary to begin oral feeding as their health stabilizes and as they reach a postconceptional age that supports coordination of breathing and swallowing with oral-motor functioning. The time from initiation of oral feeding to full oral feedings (with adequate intake for growth and maintenance of physiologic stability) can vary from days to months for the pre...