It is widely acknowledged that pre-term infants frequently experience difficulties in attaining independent oral feeding, thus delaying the achievement of an adequate nutritional status and hospital discharge which - according to the American Academy of Pediatrics- requires the ability to feed exclusively by mouth(1-2) The development of oral feeding ability in pre-term infants is therefore a primary concern for neonatologists.~Because of the immaturity of their body functions and the occurrence of co-morbidities, pre-term infants generally require a period of enteral feeding before they acquire the coordinated sucking ability that allows sufficient milk intake for growth(3) Furthermore, infant sucking skills differ between bottle- and breastfeeding (4), and pre-term infants have been reported to show a weaker and less coordinated suck (5).~Few studies have investigated the timing and effect of co-morbidities on the achievement of independent oral skills. Jadcherla et al. (6) reported that infants born with a gestational age of < 28 weeks showed a significant delay in attaining the transition to oral feeding, but it has also been found that the occurrence of morbidities negatively correlates with postmenstrual age at the time of achieving oral feeding skills (6),(7-8).
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of co-morbidities on the timing of the achievement of full oral feeding in a cohort of pre-term infants and to evaluate their mode of feeding and feeding status at the time of hospital discharge.