New Chicco Bottles Study

Breastfeeding is recommended as the ideal form of nutrition for newborns and infants at least for the first 6 months of life by several Institutions such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). When breastfeeding is not possible or not desirable, bottle-feeding, in most cases using a proper infant formula, is the right alternative. Both facial and cranial growth and development rely on genetic and external stimuli; the latter are provided also by activities of sucking, swallowing and chewing. Considering this, it is important to show the differences between the activities of the muscles (masseter, temporalis and buccinator) in charge of sucking during breastfeeding or bottle-feeding. The activities of the muscles were evaluated through SLI, which consists of the assessment of muscle functioning by analyzing the displacement of a defined point on a given muscle. This displacement is tracked over time with respect to a fixed frame of reference, thus providing velocity data (i.e. speed) for a certain point on the muscle during muscle contraction. The use of SLI allowed us to determine the activity of oral muscles on the different types of feeding and to compare their strength and activity. Principal aims of the present study was to assess the activity of the orbicularis oris muscle (OM) and of the masseter, temporalis and buccinator muscles (MM, TM and BM) (i.e. the muscles in charge of sucking during breastfeeding) during breastfeeding and bottle-feeding by means of SLI. The new Chicco feeding bottles Natural Feeling (Natural Fit) 0m+, 4m+ and 6m+ were used according to the age of the infants. Moreover, the following parameters were evaluated comparing breastfeeding and bottle-feeding: feeding efficiency (measured as ml/minute milk intake considering an interval of 15 minutes) and oxygen saturation during feeding (assessed by pulse oximetry). Moreover colic-like symptoms over 9 weeks (0 to 4 weeks infant only) were eva