Developmental patterns of normal nutritive sucking in infants.

The purpose of this investigation was to quantify normal nutritive sucking, using a microcomputer-based instrument which replicated the infant's customary bottle-feeding routine. 86 feeding sessions were recorded from infants ranging between 1.5 and 11.5 months of age. Suck height, suck area and percentage of time spent sucking were unrelated to age. Volume per suck declined with age, as did intersuck interval, which corresponded to a more rapid sucking rate. This meant that volume per minute of sucking time was fairly constant. The apparatus provided an objective description of the patterns of normal nutritive sucking in infants to which abnormal sucking patterns may be compared.