The effect of olfactory stimulation with breast milk smell on the duration of feeding transitional time from gavage to oral feeding and hospital stay in premature infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive-care unit

Background and Objective: One of the problems of premature infants is oral muscles insufficiency and inadequacy of oral-feeding skills at birth. Use of supportive oral interventions such as olfactory stimulation can facilitate this increasing challenge in neonatal intensive care unit. This study aimed to check the effect of olfactory stimulation with breast milk smell on the duration of feeding transitional time from gavage to oral feeding in premature infants. Materials and Method: In this randomized clinical trial study, 92 premature infants with the gestational age of less than 33 weeks hospitalized in neonatal intensive-care units of Valiasr and Jame Zanan hospitals in Tehran, Iran, during April to September 2013 were enrolled using available sampling method. They were randomly divided into 2 groups of 46, control and intervention (received mother milk odor during gavage periods) groups. A researcher-made checklist including demographic and primary (transitional feeding time, weighting, first breast feeding time, hospital stay) variables was used. The data were analyzed using independent t and Mann-Whitney tests via SPSS16 software. Results: Olfactory stimulation of premature infants significantly reduced the feeding transitional time and length of hospitalization more in intervention group (11.20 ± 3.23 and 14.65 ± 3.57 days, respectively) compared to control group (21.65 ± 6.04 and 26.20 ± 6.50 days, respectively) (P < 0.001 for both). Starting the first breast-feeding from mother's breast was done more effectively in a shorter time in intervention group, too (P < 0.001). Conclusion: According to reducing the gavage to oral feeding transitional time, training this simple and low-cost method to mothers can be effective in improving the quality of feeding in premature infants.