The Effect of Abdominal Touch on Nutritional Tolerance in Premature Infants: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trail

Background The most common cause of death during neonatal period is prematurity. Nutritional tolerance is very important in this period. If during this period the problems of feeding the preterm infant are not resolved, chronic disorder occurs in normal growth. Materials and Methods In this randomized controlled clinical trial we selected 60 preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit of Motahhari Hospital in Urmia, Iran, and randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. The infants were touched using Field technique by olive oil in two steps in the morning and evening, with a time of 15 minutes by first researcher. Nutritional tolerance was evaluated using the Daily Observation Chart and by gavage milk volume, abdominal circumference, the frequency of defecations and gastric residual volume. The data were collected during 4 consecutive days and the results were compared on the fourth day, with the first day. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 17.0. Results According to the results, the abdominal circumference after touch was less in the intervention group (1.77±1.38) compared to the control group (1.43±1.22) (p <0.05). However, the frequency of defecations (1.03± 0.61) and the volume of the gavage milk (9.83±2.68) was increased (p <0.05), but there was no significant difference between the frequency of vomiting in fourth day group. Conclusion According the results, touching in premature infants using Field technique in two steps in the morning and evening, with a time of 15 minutes can improve nutritional tolerance of premature infants.