Introduction:

The premature infant has an ineffective feeding pattern and there is often a reduction in weight gain and the ability to eat completely. It is necessary to provide multisensory stimulation to increase suction feeding capacity.

Objective:

To determine the effect of multisensory stimulation on the feeding pattern in hospitalized preterm infants.

Methods:

Controlled clinical trial, random allocation of 58 hospitalized preterm infants, the intervention was applied in different doses (1 vs. 3 times a day).

The outcome measures were:

number of days to achieve total oral suction, weight gain, hemodynamic stabilization during feeding (episodes of bradycardia and desaturation), amount taken and time spent during feeding and number of sucks in each feeding.

Results:

The intervention applied in high dose showed a statistically significant effect (p <0.05) for the achievement of the oral feeding, weight gain and other feeding skills without risk to this drink.

Conclusion:

A beneficial effect was found in reducing the number of days to reach the total oral route and in weight gain.