Prevalence of feeding related issues/difficulties in Taiwanese children with history of prematurity, 2003-2006.
Most Taiwanese preterm kids with feeding problems never get rehab, yet brief ABA drinking lessons show the gap can be closed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers looked at national hospital data from Taiwan. They tracked low-birth-weight babies born between 2003 and 2006.
The team counted how many of these children had feeding problems before age five. They also checked how often the kids got rehab help.
What they found
Feeding issues were common in these small babies. Hospital stays for feeding problems went up each year.
Most children who needed help never saw a feeding clinic. Families used medical care but skipped rehab services.
How this fits with other research
Andersson et al. (2017) studied the same group of Taiwanese preterm preschoolers. They found that seven in ten had strong everyday skills. This seems opposite to Tsu-Hsin's picture of high feeding trouble. The gap shows feeding is only one part of daily life; a child can eat poorly yet still play and learn well.
Perez et al. (2015) offers hope. Two toddlers with feeding disorders learned to drink by themselves after adults gave toys for each sip. Their single-case success hints that the unused rehab slots Tsu-Hsin saw could be filled with quick, reward-based lessons.
Chien-Hu et al. (2013) tracked preschoolers with cerebral palsy and saw slower gains when therapy started late. The same risk fits preterm kids: if feeding issues stay untreated, small problems can snowball.
Why it matters
If you serve preterm clients, screen feeding early and often. A child may look fine in play but still choke, vomit, or refuse textures. Pair your behavior plan with medical checks and lobby for rehab referrals. One phone call to a feeding clinic can cut years of struggle.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Feeding problems are common problems seen in premature infants following their discharge from the NICU. However, the prevalence of feeding issues and failure to thrive among preterm infants in Taiwan is uncertain. All former studies of prevalence and identifications of feeding issues were from western countries. Those findings are therefore not representative. The objectives of this study were to understand the proportion of feeding problems and its trend in Taiwanese children who were born prematurely as well as to identify the medical and rehabilitation needs related to feeding difficulties in children with premature history. We investigated the prevalence of feeding problems in 2003-2006 using random subjects of 5% of the enrollees in the National Health Insurance program of Taiwan. Databases used in this study include 'monthly claim summary for ambulatory care claims', 'inpatient expenditures by admissions', 'details of ambulatory care orders, etc. ICD-9 codes of preterm infants and related diagnoses were used as variables. According to this systematical sampling data, there is a rise in the percentage of children admitted to the hospital with low birth weight. High percentage of these children experienced feeding related issues/difficulties in their first 5 years of life. However, under-utilization of rehabilitation services were noted with these low birth weight children who had feeding problems. There is a high co-occurrence between low birth weight children and feeding problems in their first 5 years of life measured by frequency of hospital admissions or outpatient ambulatory care services requirement. It is recommended based on our results that children with low birth weight should be screened automatically for potential feeding difficulties during the hospital stay. Furthermore, feeding monitoring/management as well as parental education on potential risk for feeding difficulties should be incorporated in the early intervention program.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.11.001