Methods and problems in the transition of premature infants to oral feeding: A review of the literature

Introduction: Preterm infants are necessary to acquire safe and effective feeding skills as they are born without developed suck-swallow-respiration coordination skills. Various methods are used in premature infants in order to improve sucking skills and transit from gavage feeding to full oral feeding or breastfeeding safer and faster. Aim: To research and evaluate all methods by which a premature infant will transit to oral feeding, as well as to report problems that is going to happen during the transition. Methodology: A review of the literature was conducted in PubMed database from January 2022 to March 2022. The criteria for entering the review were the following: primary research studies, the language should be either English or Greek, the article should be published between 01/01/2012 to 31/12/2021 and studies that refer to preterm infants. The sort was done using the PRISMA 2009 method. Results: A search in electronic database PubMed, applying specific eligibility criteria, resulted in 159 articles. Through identification, screening and eligibility procedures, resulted in 20 articles. The methods that identified were nonnutritive sucking with either a pacifier, the mother’s breast, or a pacifier connected to a music player that heard the mother’s voice, oro-motor stimulation, a combination of nonnutritive sucking oro-motor stimulation, responsive feeding to neonatal signs, cup and probiotics. Conclusions: All these methods lead to earlier full oral feeding, reduce the length of hospital stay, and cause fewer side effects.