Changes in infant non-nutritive sucking throughout a suck sample at 3-months of age

Emily Zimmerman; Thomas Carpenito; Alaina Martens

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0235741

Changes in infant non-nutritive sucking throughout a suck sample at 3-months of age

PLoS One. 2020 Jul 9;15(7):e0235741. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235741. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Emily Zimmerman¹, Thomas Carpenito², Alaina Martens¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
² Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to compare how infants' non-nutritive suck (NNS) changes throughout a suck sample. Fifty-four full-term infants (57% male) completed this study at, on average, 3.03 (SD .31) months of age. These infants sucked on our custom research pacifier for approximately five minutes. Infants produced, on average, 14.50 suck bursts during the sample. NNS data was pooled across subjects and breakpoint analyses were completed to determine if there were changes in their NNS patterning. Breakpoints were evident for NNS cycles per burst at burst numbers 18 and 34, and for amplitude (cmH20) at burst numbers 18 and 29. No breakpoints were present for NNS frequency. Infants exhibit changes in their suck physiology across burst number. When assessing suck, developmental specialists should observe more than one suck burst to attain a more valid and appropriate scope of the infant's suck ability.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Female
Humans
Infant
Male
Pacifiers
Sucking Behavior / physiology*

Grants and funding

EZ, Grant #: DC016030, The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.