Effect of premature infant oral motor intervention (PIOMI) and pacifier intervention on the transition to oral feeding in preterm infants: A randomized controlled study.
Merve Cakirli, Meral Bayat, Ayse Neslihan Tekin
PMID 40263933WHAT IT FOUND
Preterm infants given oral motor intervention or pacifier reached full oral feeding sooner and had shorter hospital stays than controls.
The two methods produced similar results, so either may be considered when certified oral motor care is unavailable.
Key findings
01PIOMI and pacifier were associated with shorter transition to full oral feeding and shorter hospital stay than control.
02No significant difference was found between the PIOMI and pacifier groups.
03Post-intervention early feeding skill total scores were significantly higher in PIOMI than control.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 39 infants were studied, with 13 in each group, so the results are not enough to prove the interventions work in all NICUs. The study was done in one NICU in Turkey, and different nurses gave care and completed feeding assessments, which may make results hard to apply elsewhere. PIOMI and pacifier did not differ significantly, so the study does not show PIOMI is better than pacifier for feeding transition or discharge. The early feeding skill scale had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.72 in this study, so the scores may be less stable than the scale's published values. The interventions were applied by the researcher, not by routine staff, so it is not clear how easily every nurse could deliver them.
Declared interests
This work was supported by Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects Unit, Grant numbers TDK-2022-11507. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that pacifier intervention is equivalent to PIOMI for all outcomes. The trial found no significant difference between PIOMI and pacifier, but it included only 39 infants, and the feeding-skill score advantage was reported as significant for PIOMI compared with control.