Neonatal Eating Assessment Tool - Mixed Breastfeeding and Bottle-feeding: Reference values and factors associated with problematic feeding symptoms in healthy, full-term infants

In this study, we reported reference values for the NeoEAT – Mixed Breastfeeding and Bottle-feeding based on data from 409 infants less than 7 months old. Reference values are provided for infants 0 -2, 2 – 4, 4 – 6, and 6 – 7 months old. Reference values can be used to identify whether an infant’s feeding falls outside of the range of typical for their age in order to support early interventions and/or referral to feeding specialists. In this study, we also found that within healthy, full-term infants, those with more gastrointestinal symptoms had higher NeoEAT – Mixed Feeding scores. In infants with concurrent gastrointestinal symptoms and feeding difficulties, management of gastrointestinal distress may be critical to improvement in overall feeding.

Authors: Britt Pados, Jamarii Johnson, & Madeline Nelson

Publication Information: Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. 2021; 33(11): 938-946. doi: 10.1097/JXX.0000000000000476

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