The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has developed a unique feeding device, which may lower the risk of failure to thrive (FTT) currently affecting 50% of all newborns with congenital heart defects, even after they had successful surgery.
The device, which evaluates an infant’s ability to feed appropriately through sucking, swallowing and breathing effectively, has been invented by Professor and nurse practitioner Barbara Medoff-Cooper, PhD, CRNP in collaboration with Penn bioengineers. It gives healthcare professionals the opportunity to evaluate infants at risk for dysfunctional feeding and poor weight gain, given that both premature infants and those with complex congenital heart disease often experience feeding difficulties.
The data can also be linked to growth or developmental problems, which may develop during infants’ first year of life.
Dr. Medoff-Cooper explains:
“Feeding actually speaks loudly to us about the brain. If a child is feeding well, it gives us one fewer major issue to worry about. Conversely, even a full-term infant who is not feeding well is at high risk for developmental problems.”
Dr. Medoff-Cooper performed the first thorough assessment of feeding difficulties in infants with complex congenital heart defects, discovering that feeding behaviors are able to predict developmental outcomes in high-risk infants due to the complicated interplay of movements and physiologic responses that the feeding process requires.
Dr. Medoff-Cooper concludes that the effectiveness of feeding corresponds to how well infants will achieve other developmental milestones.
Written by Petra Rattue