The effect of finger feeding methods in time of switching to total oral feeding in preterm infants

Preterm infants may not be very successful at receiving human milk in their first trial. Until the babies are able to meet their nutritional meets through human milk, using the other supportive feeding methods such as finger feeding and feeding with spoon, dropper, cup and bottle may be necessary. This study was planned due to research the effect of finger feeding method on physiological measurement, the level of oxygen saturation, growing up, time of switching to total oral feeding and length of hospitalization in preterm infants. The research was conducted in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU 1 and NICU 2) of Çukurova University Balcalı Hospital between February 2016 and November 2016 in experimental design. The research was conducted with preterm infants who are 32 gestational weeks (including corrected aged ones) and fed with full enteral feding in NICU 1 and NICU 2. Finger feeding was performed until preterm infants in the experimental group (n = 20) were fed with total oral feeding. No invention was performed in the control group (n = 20). The data were collected with " The Identifier Information Form of Preterm Infants " and "Preterm Infant Follow-up Form". Statistical analyzes were performed by using the SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20) package program. Frequency tables and descriptive statistics were used to interpret the findings. Parametric methods were used for the measurement values suitable for normal distribution. Independent Sample t Test (t-table value) method was used to compare two independent groups with measured values, in accordance with the parametric methods. Non-parametric methods were used for inaccurate measurement values for normal distribution. The "Mann-Whitney U Test" (Z-table value) method was used to compare two independent groups with measured values, in accordance with nonparametric methods. Ethical approval, formal permission and informed consent from mothers were made in order to conduct the research. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean times of switching time of preterms fed with finger feeding and feeding (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between newborn gender, gestation week and infant birth weight classifications (p> 0.05). No significant difference was found between the two groups in the terms of the mean weights at discharging and the mean times of discharging (p>0.05). The research is an original work because when nationatal and international literature is examined, there is no other research about finger feeding that used for supporting method for breastfeeding at preterm infants. It was determined that preterms used the finger feeding method as a supportive method to the breastfeeding could switch to the oral feeding in shorter time. It may be recommended to health care providers to feed preterms by finger feeding method in neonatal intensive care units. Key Words: Breastfeeding, nursing, finger feeding, preterm, neonatal intensive care.