Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are at huge risk of problems with oral feeding, potentially requiring surgical intervention if they can’t take in the nutrition required for growth and healing.
Historically, specialized occupational therapists evaluated and treated babies who had feeding issues at Children’s of Alabama. But today, they are joined by specialized speech therapists.
“The addition of speech therapists with special interest in NICU patients gave us an additional caretaker with a different background and skill set,” said neonatologist Allison Black, M.D. “We took advantage of both disciplines and their specialized, yet different, training and teamed them to create the infant feeding team.”
“The teamwork begins during the evaluation process, even performing some of the tests such as swallowing studies and fiberoptic endoscopic evaluations of swallowing together,” Dr. Black said. Having two therapists work together for these studies is a bonus, said Christy Moran, an occupational therapist who works on the feeding team.
For instance, she said, it is quite challenging to perform a modified barium swallow on an infant. With two therapists, however, one positions the infant and serves as feeder, incorporating the techniques used to support oral feeding. The other therapist prepares the barium and watches the screen. “It is a much better study with two therapists working together, so each can focus completely on their part instead of splitting their attention between one or the other,” Moran said.
The therapists then collaborate to form a feeding and therapy plan, which they share with the rest of the NICU team. The approach continues until the patient is discharged home.
“The patient benefits because they get evaluated by different people at different times, both of whom are experts at feeding infants,” Dr. Black said. “This helps us get a clearer overall picture of what the infant is truly capable of since a baby’s interest in feeding can depend on the time of day and multiple other factors, all of which are constantly changing in the NICU.”
Working as a team also enables greater support for families and caretakers, said speech-language pathologist Allie Gilbert. “Since we work so closely together, there is a rhythm to our discharge sessions,” she said, “and parents seem to appreciate having both disciplines reinforcing the same recommendations.”
Dr. Black is now collecting data on the impact the team has on infant feeding. Anecdotally, however, she said she’s seen greater success at getting babies to take oral feeds more quickly since implementing the team concept.
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