The relationship between oral motor stimulation and sucking ability in low birth weight infants

Abstract

Background: Low birth weight infants (LBWIs) often experience difficulties in sucking due to immaturity of the oral-motor system, which affects the transition to oral feeding and prolongs hospitalization. Oral motor stimulation is used as an intervention to help improve the sucking ability of LBWIs. This study aimed to describe the relationship between oral motor stimulation and sucking ability in LBWIs.

Methods: This literature review was conducted by searching articles in the PubMed database using relevant keywords. A total of five articles were selected after a screening process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria to obtain a comprehensive overview of the effectiveness of oral motor stimulation.

Results: The review results indicate that oral motor stimulation techniques such as oral motor intervention (OMI), premature infant oral motor intervention (PIOMI), and non-nutritive sucking (NNS) have a positive effect on increasing sucking volume and pattern, accelerating the transition to oral feeding, and improving feeding readiness. Several studies also reported weight gain and reduced length of hospital stay, although these outcomes were not consistent across all studies

Conclusion: Oral motor stimulation has been proven effective in improving the sucking ability of LWBIs and accelerating the transition to oral feeding. This intervention has the potential to be applied in neonatal clinical practice. Further research with stronger experimental designs and larger sample sizes is needed to evaluate the long-term effects more comprehensively.