title: Weight loss and low age are associated with intensity of rooting behaviours in newborn infants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about the developing breastfeeding behaviour of newborn infants. This study describes infants' prebreastfeeding behaviour during the second day of life and explores possible associations with infant characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 13 mothers and healthy full-term infants after normal births. At 24-48 hours of life, the newborns were placed in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers for breastfeeding and were video-filmed. The order, frequency and duration of predefined infant prefeeding behaviours and suckling were coded and analysed using computer-based video software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prefeeding behaviours occurred in the following order: rooting, hand to mouth movements, licking of the nipple and hand to breast to mouth movements. The infants started to suckle at a median of one to two minutes. Rooting was the most common behaviour, observed in 12 infants. The duration of rooting movements during the last minute before breastfeeding was inversely related to neonatal age (p ≤ 0.001) and positively related to neonatal weight loss (p = 0.02) after birth.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Infants exhibited a distinct sequence of prefeeding behaviours during the second day of life, and our findings suggest that rooting movements were governed by mechanisms involved in the regulation of food intake and weight gain.
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|Japanese Red Cross Toyota College of Nursing, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Wibke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jonas
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna-Berit
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Ransjö-Arvidson
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skara, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lidfors
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skara, Sweden.|Systems Biology Research Center, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uvnäs Moberg
authors.affiliation: Division of Reproductive Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nissen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018730:Infant Behavior; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D015431:Weight Loss
keywords: Breastfeeding behaviour; Infant age; Infant weight loss; Prefeeding behaviour; Rooting behaviour