Oral Feeding Readiness Assessment

Tool III: infant with cleft lips and or palate oral feeding readiness assessment scale: Infant oral feeding readiness assessment scale (POFRAS) is comprised of five main categories with items that consist of:

1) Oral posture (lips and tongue posture);

2) Oral reflexes (rooting, sucking, biting and gag reflexes)

3) Non-nutritive sucking (tongue movement, tongue cupping, jaw movement, sucking strain, sucking and pause, maintenance of sucking/pause, maintenance of alert state and stress signs).

Infant’s performance in each item is assessed from zero to 2 (Suzanne M, et al, 2005).

Tool IV: Infant Breastfeeding Behaviors Scale (IBFBS). The PIBBS can be used to describe the development of breast feeding behavior of infants (Hed berg. 1999).

Discuss with parents realistic expectations for initiation and progression of feeding tube feeding only.

After Non-nutritive sucking 90.0% sucking reflex was present and 10% were weak. According to biting reflex before Non-nutritive sucking 55% of them were weak, while 43.3% were present and 1.7% were absent, After NNS it was observed that the majority (83.3%) present were 5% weak and only 1.7% absent. Finally gag reflex part which present 90% present and only 10% had weak gag reflex .while after Non-nutritive gag reflex 96.6%were present and 3.4%were weak.

Table (5) showed that percent distribution of premature infant according to Non –Nutritive sucking tongue movement before Non –nutritive sucking 83.0% had adequate movement of total number, while 17.0%were altered during Non –nutritive sucking, After Non –nutritive sucking the majority of them 93.0%were adequate, and only 7.0%were altered sig 8. After Non –nutritive sucking 58.2% were present >8, while 35% had ranged between5-8, and were 6.7% had <120b/m before feeding while half (50%) have 120b/m after feeding