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The Effect Of Breast Milk Sniffing And Tasting On Early Feeding Tips

The Effect of Breastmilk Smelling and Tasting & Smelling First Breastfeeding Practices on Sucking Success and Early Period Feeding Clues of Term Newborns

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06341153
Enrollment
72
Registered
2024-04-02
Start date
2022-07-15
Completion date
2023-11-15
Last updated
2024-04-02

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Breastfeeding, Newborn; Vitality, Odors, Body

Brief summary

The study aimed to investigate the effects of breast milk sniffing and breast milk tasting and sniffing on sucking success and early feeding cues in term newborns who were started to breastfeed for the first time.

Detailed description

In the literature, there are many studies examining the odor effect or odor and taste effect during gavage feeding of premature and low birth weight infants hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). However, no study was found to examine the effect of smell and taste application on breastfeeding success and early feeding cues during initiation of breastfeeding for the first time in healthy term newborns. It is clear that sick newborns need much more support and intervention in the transition to oral feeding. However, the low rates of breastfeeding in our country indicate that the use of effective and facilitating methods to initiate and maintain breastfeeding is also necessary for term and healthy infants. Therefore, this study may guide healthcare professionals on the effectiveness of odor and taste stimulation for early breastfeeding and provide ideas for designing new research and projects.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALBreast Milk Odor Stimulation

In the breast milk odor stimulation group, one or two drops of breast milk were placed on a sponge in accordance with the literature. Breast milk was obtained from each infant's own mother by hand expressing. The mothers were asked to express two drops of breast milk from their breasts onto the sponge. The sponge on which the breast milk was dripped was placed as close to the baby's nose as possible without touching the baby's nose. Since breast milk odor stimulation is recommended to be given to the baby for 1 minute in the literature, the baby was allowed to smell the odor of breast milk for 1 minute. The baby was then given to the mother for breastfeeding and breastfeeding was initiated as in routine practice.

BEHAVIORALStimulation of Breast Milk Smell and Taste

In this group in which the breast milk sniffing method was applied; two drops of breast milk were dripped onto a sponge in accordance with the literature and this sponge was placed as close to the nose as possible without touching the nose and the baby was allowed to smell the smell of breast milk for about 1 minute. Then the baby was given to the mother. The mother was asked to express milk manually and to apply/drip approximately 0.2 ml (approximately two drops) of the expressed colostrum starting from the tip of the baby's tongue, along the tongue surface, on both cheeks of the baby, as applied in studies using oral colostrum as a reference. The mother was also asked to express a drop of milk from her breast and manually apply it to the areola. Breastfeeding was then initiated as in routine practice.

Sponsors

Health Institutes of Turkey
CollaboratorOTHER_GOV
Sibel Küçükoğlu
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE (Investigator)

Masking description

According to the a priori power analysis with a pairwise hypothesis, effect size of 0.409, significance level of 0.05 and power of 0.80; it was determined that the inclusion of a total of 72 newborns (Odor Stimulation: 24, Odor+taste stimulation: 24, Control: 24) in the study would provide sufficient sample size. Inclusion Criteria; For the mother; * Having a term and healthy baby, * No communication and language problems, * No maternal illness preventing breastfeeding (active chemotherapy, HIV positive, neurological or psychological problems, etc.), * Willingness to breastfeed, For the baby; * Not having a disease condition that prevents breastfeeding (cleft palate, cleft lip, galactotemia, choanal atresia, etc.), * Being at normal birth weight (2500gr-4000gr), * Apgar score of 7 and above.

Intervention model description

The stratification and blocking method was used to assign the mothers who would participate in the study to the experimental and control groups, taking into account factors such as normal or cesarean delivery and breastfeeding experience. In order to ensure homogeneity in the groups, mothers were stratified as mode of delivery (Normal-Cesarean) and breastfeeding experience (Present-Non-existent). After the blocks were formed, the groups included in the study were randomly assigned to the strata with the letters A, B and C using the random numbers table obtained in the computer environment (www.random.org). Which letter would be in which group was determined by lot (A=Odor Stimulation, B=Odor+Taste Stimulation, C=Control Group).

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
18 Years to 40 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* For the mother * Having a term and healthy baby, * No communication and language problems, * No maternal illness preventing breastfeeding (active chemotherapy, HIV positive, neurological or psychological problems, etc.), * Willingness to breastfeed, For the baby; * Not having a disease condition that prevents breastfeeding (cleft palate, cleft lip, galactotemia, choanal atresia, etc.), * Being at normal birth weight (2500gr-4000gr), * Apgar score of 7 and above.

Exclusion criteria

* Under 18 and over 40 years of age, * Development of postpartum complications (in mother or baby), * Multiple pregnancy.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Introductory Information FormFirst measurement-First day of hospitalizationThis form was created by the researchers by utilizing the literature. The descriptive information form consisted of a total of 12 questions inquiring about the mother's descriptive information (maternal age, education level, occupation, place of residence, economic status), obstetric information (mode of delivery, number of deliveries, breastfeeding experience, time of first breastfeeding) and infant information (infant's gender, birth weight, gestational week, Apgar score at 5 min).
Early Feeding Tips ScaleFirst measurement-first breastfeeding of the first dayThe Turkish validity and reliability study of the scale developed by Thoyre, Ahaker, and Pridham in 2005 was conducted by Girgin et al. in 2021. The early feeding cues scale consists of 19 items and 5 subcategories and is evaluated based on observation. These categories are respiratory regulation, oral-motor function, swallowing coordination, alertness-energy status and physiological stability.The lowest total score is 19 and the highest is 57. A higher score indicates the presence of early feeding cues and a lower score indicates a decrease in early feeding cues.
Breastfeeding Identification and Assessment Scale (LATCH)First measurement-first breastfeeding of the first dayIt is a measurement tool developed by Jansen and Wallece in 1993, which is similar to the APGAR scoring system in terms of scoring. Turkish validity and reliability studies of the LATCH breastfeeding diagnosis form were conducted by Demirhan in 1997 , Koyun in 2001 , and Yenal and Okumuş in 2003. Each criterion in the scale is given a score between 0 and 2 and the lowest score is 0 and the highest score is 10. An increase in the scores obtained from the scale indicates breastfeeding success.

Countries

Turkey (Türkiye)

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026