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Premature Babies In NICU – Developmental Problems

Premature babies often are kept in the neonatal intensive care unit (the NICU) of the hospital because they have not developed enough to survive without specialized equipment or specialized care.

One of the most common developmental delays of pre-term infants is an inability to eat. They have not yet developed the sequence of

suck-> swallow -> breathe.

Usually, this shows up as an attempt to

suck -> suck -> suck -> suck -> breathe

and in this case they have not yet swallowed, so they breathe in the milk they have in their mouth.

These children are fed by a tube (down their throat and into their stomach) until they have mastered this sequence. Sometimes it takes many weeks to get this sequence right.

Hospitals have learned that holding the babies reduces the time it takes for the child to get this sequence mastered. So, parents, staff, and volunteers started holding the babies. This had reduced the time by a significant amount.

But the real reduction in the length of the NICU stay happened when rocking chairs were installed in the NICU. When you are holding and rocking an infant, you are providing the specific stimulation needed fto the move the developmental process forward. The rocking action stimulates the brain to move forward through developmental stages.

In this case, rocking helps the premature infant develop the normal feeding sequence of

suck -> swallow -> breathe.

The stress of being pre-mature and not being able to get the natural stimuli needed to develop appropriately often causes children to become hypersensitive to many things in their environment. Pre-mature children are often reacting to multiple factors in their environment and this further blocks their developmental process.

The Get My Child Back On Track™ program helps parents find out what their child is reacting to and guides them in cleaning their child’s environment. It also teaches parents the stimulation needed to get their child back on track.

Rodger Bailey, MS