Maternal Scent and Preterm Infant Nutrition

American University of Beirut Medical Center

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Development, Child; Behavior, Infant; Development, Infant

Treatments: Other: Maternal scent cloth

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03849248

SBS-2018-0527

Details and patient eligibility

About

To study the effect of maternal scent on the oral feeding, behavior and stress level of premature infants hospitalized in the Neonatal intensive care unit and to assess its potential effect on their development at 18 to 24 months.

Full description

Premature infants develop their sense of smell very early in the womb. After birth infants can recognize and distinguish the odor of their mother from their father and others. Premature infants are capable of smelling and they experience less pain and agitation when they smell their mother's milk; studies have shown that premature infants have better sucking and feeding, and they may go home earlier when they are exposed to the odor of breast milk. It is not known whether the same will happen if preterm infants are exposed to their mother's smell rather than the smell of the maternal milk.

Enrollment: 132 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5 to 10 days old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Mother of a baby who was born premature before completing 36 weeks of pregnancy
• Baby between ages of 5-10 days
• Medically stable baby
• Baby already began feeding by mouth or by feeding tube

Exclusion criteria

• Medically unstable baby born after 36 weeks of gestation.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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132 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

This group of babies will have a maternal scented cloth placed under their heads

Treatment:

Other: Maternal scent cloth

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

This group of babies will have a clean non- maternal scented cloth placed under their head