The effects of giving pacifiers to premature infants and making them listen to lullabies on their transition period for total oral feeding and sucking success

Aim and objective. This research aimed to assess the effect of giving pacifiers to premature infants and making them listen to lullabies on the transition period to total oral feeding, their sucking success and their vital signs (peak heart rate, respiration rate and oxygen saturation). Background. It is very important that preterm infants start oral feeding as soon as possible to survive and get healthy quickly. Previous studies have shown that by using some external stimuli, premature babies can move to oral feeding at an earlier period than 34th gestational week, have increased daily weight gain and be discharged from hospital earlier. Design. In this quasi‐experimental and prospective study, 90 premature infants were studied with 30 premature infants allocated to each of pacifier, lullaby and control groups. Method. The research was conducted at a neonatal intensive care clinic and premature unit of a university hospital in the east of Turkey between December 2007–January 2009. The data were collected through demographic information form for premature infants, the LATCH Breastfeeding Charting System and patient monitoring. Results. We found that the group who proceeded to the oral feeding in the shortest period was the pacifier group ( p < 0·05), followed by the lullaby group and the control group, respectively ( p > 0·05). We also found that the highest sucking success was achieved by infants in the pacifier group ( p < 0·05) followed by the lullaby group ( p > 0·05). Conclusion. These results demonstrate that giving pacifiers to premature infants and making them listen to lullabies has a positive effect on their transition period to oral feeding, their sucking success and vital signs (peak heart rate and oxygen saturation). Relevance to clinical practice. Neonatal intensive care nurses can accelerate premature infants’ transition to oral feeding and develop their sucking success by using the methods of giving them pacifiers and making them listen to lullabies during gavage feeding.