BACKGROUND: early stimulation of non-nutritive sucking in preterm newborns. PROCEDURES: review of three charts of preterm newborn infants with gestational age of 33 weeks who had difficulty only in sucking, without associated pathologies. In the analysis of the records, the following data were collected for comparison: birth weight, total days in high-risk, total days in medium risk, tonus, weight-gain, length of speech therapy intervention and hospital discharge. The babies were treated in the ICU of Hospital Regional de Taguatinga in Brasilia / DF. RESULTS: the first newborn (RN1) spent 19 days in high risk, the RN2 spent three days and RN3, four days. The stimulation sucking of RN1 was delayed, because of the several days in high risk, where there is no speech therapy activity. It was difficult for the RN1 to develop its suction reflex and RN1 was discharged with the aid of bank milk. RN2 and RN3 were discharged performing effective suction at mother breast without any recommendation. CONCLUSION: data obtained in this study point out to the effectiveness of speech therapy intervention with respect to early stimulation of sucking in preterm newborn, being related to hospital discharge and to overall development of the newborn. The early stimulation of speech therapy in preterm newborn infants is a key-factor for an effective, pleasant and functional feed in the maternal breast. Besides providing a greater link between mother and baby while in hospital, speech therapy may promote time reduction a for hospital discharge.
Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature; Speech Therapy; Feeding
