Vanessa Pepino
Science University of Campinas, Brazil
Title: Application of tactile/kinesthetic stimulation in preterm infants
Biography
Biography: Vanessa Pepino
Abstract
Preterm infants are exposed daily to number of stressors in the neonatal intensive care unit inherent to the critical care they need to survive. It has already been shown that this exposure can affect its development, language, social-emotional and adaptive-behavior. Tactile stimulation sometimes associated with kinesthetic stimulation has been the object of clinical studies since the 1960s and is used in preterm infants along with the standard clinical treatment. Tactile stimulation has advantages of being non invasive and a relatively inexpensive technique; generally some kind of benefit such as faster weight gain, shorter hospital stay and better behavior, among others, was reported by studies that used this technique in preterm infants. Tactile stimulation seems to represent a potential tool to improve pre term health. The differences and similarities between the methods were reviewed in clinical trials and were highlighted in an attempt to improve the methodological quality of future trials.