Positive Feeding of the Preterm Infant - a Feasibility Study of a Developmental Supportive Feeding Strategy in the NICU

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a feeding strategy called the Positive Feeding of the Preterm Infant (PoP) intervention in a level 3a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It focuses on whether this approach can be practically applied and accepted by both parents of preterm infants and healthcare personnel during the NICU stay. The study is designed as a feasibility trial to understand how this feeding strategy works in a real-world clinical setting. The intervention involves following a detailed feeding protocol tailored to the nutritional needs and developmental cues of each preterm infant. Parents receive counseling sessions to support this feeding strategy, which continues until the infant is discharged from the NICU. This approach is developed according to the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions, ensuring ongoing refinement and evaluation based on feedback. Participants, including parents and healthcare staff, will follow the protocol during the infant's NICU stay. Researchers will collect data over one year to assess recruitment rates, data collection processes, acceptability of the intervention, and resource use. Infant outcomes will also be monitored. The study emphasizes developmental supportive care and feeding practices based on the infant's cues, with continuous counseling for parents throughout the study period.

Positive Feeding of the Preterm Infant