PURPOSE: analyzing the oral and general motor behavior of newborns from women who used crack and/or cocaine during pregnancy, and verifying if there is a relation between the development of the oral and general sensory motor system. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with 25 premature and full-term newborns from women who were crack and/or cocaine users were compared with another group composed of 25 newborns without the studied factor. The evaluations of the oral and general sensory motor system were carried out by the Instrument to Assess the Readiness of Preterm Infants for Oral Feeding and by the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP). The results compared the scores obtained in both scales and their relation to the use of crack and/or cocaine during pregnancy. RESULTS: No significant difference was found by the TIMP when comparing the newborns from crack and/or cocaine-using mothers to the ones from non-using mothers. The results from the Instrument to Assess the Readiness of Preterm Infants for Oral Feeding showed statistic significance. A significant relation between the results from babies who presented delay in the TIMP to the lowest score in the Instrument to Assess the Readiness of Preterm Infants for Oral Feeding was observed. CONCLUSION: The low performance observed in the Instrument to Assess the Readiness of Preterm Infants for Oral Feeding suggests that the oral motor responses are altered by the use of drugs during the pregnancy. The significant correlation between both instruments shows that the development of the oral sensory motor system is directly related to the general motor development.
Infant, newborn; Infant, premature; Crack cocaine; Psychomotor performance; Stomatognathic system; Child development
