Korean J Child Health Nurs.  2001 Apr;7(2):236-244.

Effects of Nonnutritive Sucking on Lingual Lipase Activity and Body Weight of Low Birth Weight Infants with Bottle Feeding

• Park HR
• Park SN

Abstract

We studied the effects of nonnutritive sucking(NNS) on lingual lipase activity and body weight under bottle feeding with 17 premature infants hospitalized . NNS was applied to nine infants and other eight infants comprised the control group. Pacifiers were applied to the experimental group for 5 minutes before and after bottle feeding. The treatment took approximately 20-25 minutes each time including bottle feeding time and was applied 7 times a day at intervals of 3 hours and for consecutive ten days. Lingual lipase activity and body weight were measured on the first, third, seventh and tenth day. Results and Conclusion : 1. Lingual lipase activity was low at 30 minutes after feeding and then began to increase reaching its highest level at 120 and 180 minutes after the feeding in both group. 2. Lingual lipase activity in the experimental group was not higher than that of the control group on the third, seventh and tenth day. 3. Body weight increased in experimental and control groups as days passed, while it was not significantly different between groups. These results lead to conclusion that among premature infants under bottle feeding, NNS is not effective in increasing the lingual lipase for fat digestion and NNS is not also effective for increasing body weight. The application of NNS to premature infants under bottle feeding needs considerable judgement for promoting well-being of nursing goals.

MeSH Terms

Body Weight*
Bottle Feeding*
Digestion
Humans
Infant*
Infant, Low Birth Weight*
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Lipase*
Nursing
Pacifiers
Child Health
Lipase