Mothers' ideas about their role in feeding their high-risk infants.
OBJECTIVE
To describe how mothers of preterm infants who are learning to nipple feed view their own and their infant's role in the feeding process.


METHODS
Descriptive, comparative study.


METHODS
Two neonatal intensive-care units (NICU) in the Midwest.


METHODS
A convenience sample of 22 mothers of very-low-birth-weight infants.


METHODS
Interviews were rated for mothers' level of thinking about their co-regulatory role in their infants' feeding on a 6-point scale. The higher the score the more flexible, contingent, adaptive, and reflective the mother's thinking is regarding her infant's and her own behavior during feeding. High and low scores were compared using paired t tests.


RESULTS
The co-regulation scores ranged from 1 to 6, with a mean score of 3.3 (SD = 1.4). Mothers scoring higher on the co-regulation measure were significantly older and their infants were younger gestationally at birth. Their infants tended toward having been in the NICU for a longer period of time and spending more days on oxygen.


CONCLUSIONS
Understanding feeding from the parents' perspective can guide clinicians as they support the development of parents' feeding skills. Intervention, rather than beginning with how to feed, may need to begin with how to take the infant's perspective, how to explore infant behavior that is novel, and ways of viewing the process of feeding as co-regulated.
Thoyre
S M
SM
Department of Children's Health, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-7460, USA. thoyre@email.unc.edu
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001903:Bottle Feeding / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires