Hello Sue from NZ,

One of the sessions at the ILCA conference was about cup feeding in the
neonatal unit, complete with a video presentation showing preterm babies cup
feeding.  The speaker was Sandra Lang from England.  I have no hope of
completely relaying her talk but, until you can get the video of her talk,
here are a few of my meagre notes.

Her criteria for cup feeding were: 1) the baby MUST have a gag reflex and be
able to use its tongue.  2) cup feeds are given when babies can tolerate 2 -
3 hourly bolus feeds.  3) only cup and breast feeds are given, she prefers
not to confuse the baby with multiple types of sucking (i.e. breast, bottle,
pacifier, finger feeds, etc.)
4) Babies who have breastfeeding available at a particular feed are put to
breast first.

Cup feeds were given in the following instances:
  1) Baby near discharge whose moms cannot be present for all feeds.
  2) Infants of C-sec or ill moms who want to breastfeed.
  3) Preemies who were to be breastfed and are not satisfied by tube feeds.
  4) Babies who were tired before the end of a feed.
  5) Cleft palate and/or lip
  6) Baby with uncoordinated suck/swallow/breathe

In regards to instance 6, babies only need to coordinate the lips and tongue
with the swallow, they do not need to suck.  She also mentioned there were
no problems in her unit with aspiration.

She listed 6 advantages also.  They were:
  1) Baby paces timing and quantity
  2) Requires less energy
  3) Stimulates olfactory and oral sensory receptors.
  4) Promotes eye contact.
  6) Encourages lingual lipases and saliva

The Two disadvantages were:  1) Term babies dribble. and 2) Term babies can
become addicted to cup feeding.

She also had a great bibliography.  If you are going to do a workshop, you
would be well served by ordering a syllabus from ILCA and a video of the
session.

Good luck with your session!  All the BEST,
llp