Premature infants have significant problems feeding by mouth.
These difficulties often delay their discharge from the hospital. At the present time, the clinical feeding evaluation conducted by feeding therapists uses a subjective and descriptive approach to assess infants' oral feeding skills. With a gloved finger, the therapist evaluates the development of internal oral structures, such as the hard and soft palate, tongue cupping and lateralization, retraction, presence of the gag reflex. At the same time, as the infant is sucking on the finger, the therapist assesses the nonnutritive sucking skills through visual and tactile feedback. This is achieved by observing the movement and coordination of the cheeks and jaws, the seal of the lips around the finger and by the rhythmicity of the pressures exerted on the finger.