Changes in non-nutritive suck between 3 and 12 months

Martens, Alaina; Hines, Morgan; Zimmerman, Emily

doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.105141

Cited by 22 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…More recently, work from Martens and colleagues found that full-term infants significantly change their NNS duration, amplitude, burst number, cycles/burst and cycle number with no significant changes present in NNS frequency between 3 and 12 months. More specifically, three-month-old infants produced a median of 4.50 suck bursts per minute that contained 9.60 cycles/burst, resulting in a burst duration of 4.74 s ( Martens et al 2020 ). The median NNS frequency was 2.09 Hz, with an average amplitude of 14.05 cmH 2 0.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations of gestational phthalate exposure and non-nutritive suck among infants from the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) birth cohort study

Zimmerman

Watkins

Huerta-Montañez

et al. 2021

Environment International

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Background: Infant non-nutritive suck (NNS), or sucking on a pacifier with no nutrients being delivered, has been used as in index of brain function and has been linked to subsequent neurodevelopment. Yet, no data are available connecting NNS to environmental exposures in utero. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between gestational exposure to phthalates (a group of chemicals found in personal care products, PVC plastics, and other products) and NNS among infants in a birth cohort study in Puerto Rico. Methods: Urinary phthalate metabolite levels were measured in women at up to three time points in pregnancy as a measure of in utero exposure to the child. We calculated the geometric mean of each metabolite for each woman as a measure of exposure across gestation. Infants had their NNS sampled using our custom research pacifier between 4–6 (± 2 weeks) weeks of age, yielding the following NNS dependent measures: cycles/burst, frequency, amplitude, bursts/min, and cycles/min. Results: Two hundred and eight mother-infant dyads completed this study We used multiple linear regression to assess associations between individual phthalate metabolites and NNS measurements, adjusting for infant sex, birthweight, and urinary specific gravity. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in mono carboxyisononyl phthalate across pregnancy was associated with 3.5% (95%CI: −6.2, −0.8%) lower NNS frequency and 8.9% (0.6, 17.3%) higher NNS amplitude. Similarly, an IQR increase in mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate was also associated with 3.4% (−6.5, −0.2%) lower NNS frequency, while an IQR increase in di-2-ethylhexyl terephthalate metabolites was associated with 11.2% (2.9, 19.5%) higher NNS amplitude. Gestational exposure to phthalates may alter NNS amplitude and frequency in full-term infants. These findings indicate that the infants may be increasing their NNS amplitude to compensate for their slower NNS frequency. These preliminary findings could have important clinical implications for earlier detection of exposure-related deficits in neurofunction as well as implications for subsequent neurodevelopment and related interventions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations of gestational phthalate exposure and non-nutritive suck among infants from the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) birth cohort study

Zimmerman

Watkins

Huerta-Montañez

et al. 2021

Environment International

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“…Bursts were defined two or more suck cycles in a row, with the cycles less than one second apart and each cycle's amplitude at least one cmH 2 0 (see example in Fig 1). This definition of burst is consistent with previous studies examining NNS in young infants [8,[37][38][39][40]. Following manual selection of all bursts, the best two minutes of NNS data were selected based on cycle number, which is a common procedure used across studies [8,[37][38][39] in an effort to examine the infant's most active NNS sample.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Twenty-five total infants (11 male, 14 female) participated in this study. NNS measurements from eleven of these infants were reported in an earlier paper [8]. Infants were evaluated at 3 months (average age = 3.04 months, range = 2.56-3.76 months) and at 12 months (average age = 11.97 months, range = 11.53-12.33 months).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, NNS changes throughout the first year of life [8], and these changes are likely due to experience, anatomical growth, and a neurological system that are shifting from reflexive to more cortically driven [9]. In addition to providing information about current neuromotor development, evaluation of infant NNS can also provide information on future functional outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-nutritive suck and voice onset time: Examining infant oromotor coordination

2021

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The variability of a child’s voice onset time (VOT) decreases during development as they learn to coordinate upper vocal tract and laryngeal articulatory gestures. Yet, little is known about the relationship between VOT and other early motor tasks. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between infant vocalization and another early oromotor task, non-nutritive suck (NNS). Twenty-five full-term infants (11 male, 14 female) completed this study. NNS was measured with a customized pacifier at 3 months to evaluate this early reflex. Measures of mean VOT and variability of VOT (measured via coefficient of variation) were collected from 12-month-old infants using a Language Environmental Analysis device. Variability of VOTs at 12 months was significantly related to NNS measures at 3-months. Increased VOT variability was primarily driven by increased NNS intraburst frequency and increased NNS burst duration. There were no relationships between average VOT or range of VOT and NNS measures. Findings from this pilot study indicate a relationship between NNS measures of intraburst frequency and burst duration and VOT variability. Infants with increased NNS intraburst frequency and NNS burst duration had increased VOT variability, suggesting a relationship between the development of VOT and NNS in the first year of life. Future work is needed to continue to examine the relationship between these early oromotor actions and to evaluate how this may impact later speech development.

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“…While relatively little data are available on NNS, especially for infants residing in Puerto Rico, NNS metrics in our study participants are largely consistent with prior literature reported on infants 0–3 months ( Zimmerman and Foran, 2017 ; Zimmerman et al, 2020 ). For example, in a study of 26 full-term infants, Martens et al (2020) reported comparable ranges of NNS, with mean NNS frequency of 2.09 Hz (versus 1.9 ± 0.2 Hz in our study), mean cycles per burst of 9.6 (versus 11.5 ± 6.5 in our study), and average amplitude of 14.05 cmH 2 O (versus 17.1 ± 6.9 cmH 2 O in our study). ( Martens et al, 2020 ) The concordance of our NNS measures with prior research, together with our finding showing NNS to be similar across gender, maternal age, and pre-term birth status, suggest that our NNS measures may be generalizable to other populations; however, further characterization of NNS in other populations is needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-nutritive suck and airborne metal exposures among Puerto Rican infants

Morton

Honda

Zimmerman

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

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Air pollution has been shown to impact multiple measures of neurodevelopment in young children. Its effects on particularly vulnerable populations, such as ethnic minorities, however, is less studied. To address this gap in the literature, we assess the associations between infant non-nutritive suck (NNS), an early indicator of central nervous system integrity, and air pollution exposures in Puerto Rico. Among infants aged 0–3 months enrolled in the Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development (CRECE) cohort from 2017 to 2019, we examined associations between exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and its components on infant NNS in Puerto Rico. NNS was assessed using a pacifier attached to a pressure transducer, allowing for real-time visualization of NNS amplitude, frequency, duration, cycles/burst, cycles/min and bursts/min. These data were linked to 9-month average prenatal concentrations of PM 2.5 and components, measured at three community monitoring sites. We used linear regression to examine the PM 2.5 -NNS association in single pollutant models, controlling for infant sex, maternal age, gestational age, and season of birth in base and additionally for household smoke exposure, age at testing, and NNS duration in full models. Among 198 infants, the average NNS amplitude and burst duration was 17.1 cmH 2 O and 6.1 s, respectively. Decreased NNS amplitude was consistently and significantly associated with 9-month average exposure to sulfur (−1.026 ± 0.507), zinc (−1.091 ± 0.503), copper (−1.096 ± 0.535) vanadium (−1.157 ± 0.537), and nickel (−1.530 ± 0.501). Decrements in NNS frequency were associated with sulfur exposure (0.036 ± 0.018), but not other examined PM components. Our findings provide new evidence that prenatal maternal exposure to specific PM components are associated with impaired neurodevelopment in Puerto Rican infants soon after birth.

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Changes in non-nutritive suck between 3 and 12 months

Cited by 22 publications

References 30 publications

Associations of gestational phthalate exposure and non-nutritive suck among infants from the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) birth cohort study

Associations of gestational phthalate exposure and non-nutritive suck among infants from the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) birth cohort study

Non-nutritive suck and voice onset time: Examining infant oromotor coordination

Non-nutritive suck and airborne metal exposures among Puerto Rican infants

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