Feeding Behaviors in Infants With Prenatal Opioid Exposure: An Integrative Review.
Kelly McGlothen-Bell, Lisa Cleveland, Pamela Recto and 2 others
PMID 32868587WHAT IT FOUND
Full-term infants with prenatal opioid exposure often had fussing, crying, higher arousal, disrupted feeding, and swallows without breathing, but sucking findings were inconsistent across four small studies.
Key findings
01In three of four studies, opioid-exposed infants had more feeding problems than infants without opioid exposure, including nipple rejection or refusal, dribbling, spitting up, and coughing.
02Opioid-exposed infants had more swallows not associated with breathing than infants without opioid exposure (mean 5.3% versus mean 0.9%).
03In Maguire, fussing accounted for 40.2% of feeding episodes, and fussing plus crying accounted for 51%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included only four studies, so the evidence base is small. All studies were from the United States and published in English, so results may not apply elsewhere. Only full-term infants born between 38 and 40 weeks were included, so it does not address preterm infants. The included studies had small samples and did not fully represent racial and ethnic diversity. Definitions and tools for feeding behavior varied, so comparisons were difficult. The studies were observational and tested no feeding intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The supplied text does not state a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that any feeding strategy works or that it applies to preterm infants. The review included four small observational studies of full-term infants only, used inconsistent definitions and tools, and tested no treatment.