| Description |
This investigation was a pilot study designed to test two hypothesis: 1) that newborn infants with rooting, sucking and swallowing deficiencies receiving a training program to overcome these deficiencies will develop more successful eating related behaviors at six weeks of age as perceived by their mothers than comparable newborn infants without the early nutritive training program, and 2) that the more effective the newborn nutritive behaviors the lower will be the potential risk of emotional or developmental disorders based upon their mothers' perception of their behavior at six weeks of age. The early feeding-eating contacts of infants with their mothers represent a critical period in human development since it is a time for establishing long standing patterns of relating to significant others, satisfying basic needs, and learning to have confidence in oneself and trust in others. Infants who are not ready, or not able, to participate in the initial feeding-eating experiences fail to meet the expectations the mothers have of themselves and their infants. If this situation is not remedied, the nutritional needs of the infant become frustrated with resultant tension in the mother-child interaction. The mothers of the 27 newborn subjects were contracted when the infants were 4-6 weeks old. At this time, a questionnaire to identify the eating related behavior and the Neonatal Perception Inventory II by Broussard and Hartner (1971) were administered. A one-way analysis-of-variance, regression analysis, and chi square were used to analyze the data. T-ratios were obtained between the mean of Group 1 and Group 3. The training group (3) showed fewer number of times burped during each feeding and fewer numbers of supplemental feedings than the non-training group (1) at statistically significant levels (p < .05 and p <.01, respectively). Group 3 further shows slightly more feedings during the day, fewer night feedings, longer time spent at each feeding, more spitting up, less colic and at lower risk for subsequent emotional disorders as represented by the Neonatal Perception Inventory (NPI) scores. A one-way analysis-of-variance of the eating related behaviors on three groups shoed that Group 3 had fewer supplemental feedings at a statistically significant difference from Group 1 and Group 2 (F-ration = 3.426, p < .025). The training group (3) mean of the NPI scores suggests the lowest risk though not at a statistically significant difference from the other groups. The remaining eating related behaviors indicate the groups are comparable in these basic experiences. The chi square test showed that Group 3 subjects received significantly fewer supplemental feedings that Group 2 (X[2] = 71.27, p < .001). The mothers of Group 3 infants were also able to differentiate their infants' hunger cry at a statistically significant difference from Group 2 (x[2} = 36.818, p < .001). The total NPI differences scores further indicate the Group 3 infants to be at lowest risk for subsequent emotional disorders (x[2} - 22.0909, p < .001) when compared with Group 2. Hypothesis 1 is supported by the direction of the group differences in the other eating related behaviors, but not in the extent of the differences. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 is only partially supported by the data. Hypothesis 2 was not supported by the findings. |
