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Infant feeding behavior: Development in patterns and motivation
Author(s) -
Paul Karel,
Dittrichová Jaroslava,
Papoušek Hanuš
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2302(199611)29:7<563::aid-dev2>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - swallowing , psychology , developmental psychology , breast feeding , eye contact , bottle , audiology , motor activity , medicine , pediatrics , surgery , mechanical engineering , engineering
Abstract Studies of feeding behaviors in human infants not only provide normative data but also allow analyses of the behavioral regulation. Twenty healthy full‐term infants were observed by two examiners and were audiovisually and polygraphically recorded under standard conditions at 2, 10, 18, and 26 weeks of age prior to, during, and after breast‐ or bottle‐feeding. The parameters of sucking, breathing and swallowing significantly changed during the first 6 months of age. At 2 weeks, infants were alert and visually attentive during sucking. Breast‐fed infants had more opportunities for intimate social contacts than bottle‐fed infants because breast feeding took significantly longer time than bottle feeding. Alert motor activities significantly shifted from the prefeeding to the postfeeding time during the first 6 months of age. Together with an increase in visual exploration and theta index in EEG, this shift seems to relate to developmental changes and interindividual differences in the intrinsic motivation. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.