Development of oral sensory-motor functions of preterm and low-birth-weight newborns under speech-language pathology care

• Autor(a) principal: Souza, Dyego Leandro Bezerra de
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Cardoso, Flaviana de Souza, Pereira, Danielle Xavier, Cavalcanti, Renata Veiga Andersen
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/54962; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rlfa.2018.09.004
• topic: infant; premature; early intervention; speech; language and hearing sciences; breastfeeding

Introduction: Preterm and low-birth-weight newborns may present immaturity in the functions of sucking, swallowing and breathing, speech therapists inserted in the hospital focus on the development of newborns’ oral sensorimotor system, promoting a safe transition from tube feeding to breastfeeding and contributing to improving the quality of life of the child population. The present study aimed to analyze the development of oral functions, oral feeding transition time and breastfeeding of preterm and low-birth-weight newborns under Speech-Language Pathology care. Methods: A prognostic study carried out at a maternity hospital, based on the data collected from 121 filed medical records of newborns attended between September 2015 to July 2017. The Kaplan–Meier method, the Log Rank test and the Pearson correlation test were used for data analysis, considering a significance level of 0.05 (95%). Results: It was observed that the lower the gestational age and the birth weight of newborns, the more speech therapy services were required until the establishment of exclusive OF; also, the transition time and the average time of using the orogastric tube were inversely proportional to the gestational age at birth. The non-nutritive sucking technique was the most used for stimulation, and 78.5% of the NBs were discharged from the hospital on exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusion Moderate to late preterm and low-birth-weight newborns are able to more quickly acquire the oral sensorimotor system functional pattern, and there are indications that Speech-Language Pathology care reduces the transition time to oral feeding, thus increasing the success rate of exclusive breastfeeding