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Behavioral Insomnia of Childhood: Impact of Parent Education

M

Marmara University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders

Treatments

Behavioral: Educational care derived from POSSUMS

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03320083
09.2015.215

Details and patient eligibility

About

Behavioral Insomnia of Childhood (BIC) is among the most prevalent problem presented to pediatricians with a reported occurrence of approximately 30% worldwide.The most widely applied treatment strategies for BIC in infants comprise behavioral procedures such as unmodified extinction; graduated extinction (ignoring the infant cries with minimal checks), or camping out. Unfortunately, breastfeeding is usually considered as an undesirable sleep association in these strategies. Moreover, less is known regarding the effects of these interventions on breastfeeding outcomes. The cued care is defined as a pattern of care characterized by sensible caregiver responsiveness, which meets the need underlying the infant's cues in a flexible manner. In this context, POSSUMS has been developed as a cued care sleep intervention, which is quite different from the conventional sleep training techniques. In the current study, investigators hypothesized that mothers receiving the cued care sleep intervention would report less sleep problems in their infants. Secondary outcomes included improvement in maternal mood and maintenance of the breastfeeding during the observation period.

Full description

Behavioral Insomnia of Childhood (BIC) is among the most prevalent problem presented to pediatricians with a reported occurrence of approximately 30% worldwide.Like all the other behavioral problems, sleep problem is defined by the the parents, and influenced by parental psychopathology, parenting styles, family dynamics, culturally-based differences in values, socio-economic factors, temperament, developmental stage and medical condition of the child. Moreover, there is also data suggesting an association of depressed mood among mothers to infants with BIC. The most widely applied treatment strategies for BIC in infants comprise behavioral procedures such as unmodified extinction; graduated extinction (ignoring the infant cries with minimal checks), or camping out. The primary outcomes of these interventions include enabling infants to learn to self soothe to sleep, having less fragmented night-time sleep and longer night-time sleep periods. Unfortunately, breastfeeding is usually considered as an undesirable sleep association in these strategies. Moreover, less is known regarding the effects of these interventions on breastfeeding outcomes. Within the infant sleep research field, not breastfed but the formula fed baby is usually considered as the biological norm. However, since nursing influences both the maternal and infant sleep architecture, the outcomes of those behavioral interventions can not be accurately evaluated without considering the breastfeeding.

The cued care is defined as a pattern of care characterized by sensible caregiver responsiveness, which meets the need underlying the infant's cues in a flexible manner. In this context, POSSUMS has been developed as a cued care sleep intervention, which is quite different from the conventional sleep training techniques. This method uses the breast to make the baby go back to sleep as quickly as possible as long as the mother is happy with breastfeeding at night.

In the current study, investigators hypothesized that mothers receiving the cued care sleep intervention would report less sleep problems in their infants. Secondary outcomes included improvement in maternal mood and maintenance of the breastfeeding during the observation period.

The first part of the study was a baseline assessment of sleep problems. Software generated random number table was used to randomly allocate subjects to intervention and usual care groups. Mother-infant dyads in both groups were reassessed 3 months post intervention.

225 consecutive mother-infant dyads were assessed for eligibility at Marmara University Medical School, well- child outpatient clinic, Istanbul between 01 February 2016 and 15 April 2016. Seven did not meet the inclusion criteria, and 35 participants declined to participate. 91 were allocated to usual care, and 92 were allocated to patient education. Twenty five participants from the usual care and 1 mother infant dyad from the intervention group were lost to follow up and 157were included in the final analysis.

Enrollment

157 patients

Sex

All

Ages

6 to 12 months old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • infants' gestational age ≥37 weeks, healthy with normal birth weight (≥2.5 kg),and absence of any neonatal or postnatal medical condition

Exclusion criteria

  • premature infants, infants with acute or chronic medical condition

Trial design

Primary purpose

Supportive Care

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

157 participants in 2 patient groups

Educational care derived from POSSUMS
Active Comparator group
Description:
Intervention group were offered a sleep education session using behavioral change counseling communication skills, derived from the POSSUMS approach developed by Douglas P and Whittingham K. However we could not use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), because none of the investigators had sufficient training on ACT at the time the study was conducted.
Treatment:
Behavioral: Educational care derived from POSSUMS
Usual Care
No Intervention group
Description:
General anticipatory guidance given

Trial contacts and locations

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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