Patterned orocutaneous therapy improves sucking and oral feeding in preterm infants

Aim: To determine whether NTrainer patterned orocutaneous therapy affects preterm infants' non‐nutritive suck and/or oral feeding success. Subjects: Thirty‐one preterm infants (mean gestational age 29.3 weeks) who demonstrated minimal non‐nutritive suck output and delayed transition to oral feeds at 34 weeks post‐menstrual age. Intervention: NTrainer treatment was provided to 21 infants. The NTrainer promotes non‐nutritive suck output by providing patterned orocutaneous stimulation through a silicone pacifier that mimics the temporal organization of suck. Method: Infants' non‐nutritive suck pressure signals were digitized in the NICU before and after NTrainer therapy and compared to matched controls. Non‐nutritive suck motor pattern stability was calculated based on infants' time‐ and amplitude‐normalized digital suck pressure signals, producing a single value termed the Non‐Nutritive Suck Spatiotemporal Index. Percent oral feeding was the other outcome of interest, and revealed the NTrainer's ability to advance the infant from gavage to oral feeding. Results: Multilevel regression analyses revealed that treated infants manifest a disproportionate increase in suck pattern stability and percent oral feeding, beyond that attributed to maturational effects alone. Conclusion: The NTrainer patterned orocutaneous therapy effectively accelerates non‐nutritive suck development and oral feeding success in preterm infants who are at risk for oromotor dysfunction.