ABSTRACT
Purpose
to compare gestational age at birth, weight and corrected gestational age in the introduction of oral diet for premature newborns, who used or not used enteral tubes for feeding, according to the speech therapy intervention received.
Methods
retrospective, cross-sectional analytical study, carried out in a public maternity reference in northeastern Brazil. One-hundred and forty two medical records of newborns at risk were analyzed. We divided Participants who used or not used an enteral tube (G1 and G2) and who received or not received a speech therapy intervention (GF and GC).
Results
there was a difference between G1 and G2 regarding Apgar, weights (at birth and at discharge), and gestational ages at birth and corrected for the introduction of oral feeding (with values always lower in G1); and regarding the length of hospital stay and speech therapy intervention (higher in G1). Regarding speech therapy intervention, there was a difference between GF and GC in terms of weights (at birth and at discharge), gestational age at birth and gestational age for oral introduction (with lower values in GF), length of hospital stay and bottle use (higher in GF).
Conclusion
the use of enteral tube increases the length of hospital stay and the introduction of oral feeding happened earlier in the group that received speech therapy.
Keywords:
Newborn; Premature; Birthweight; Enteral nutrition; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences