Unexpected behavioural consequences of preterm newborns' clothing

Abstract

Restrictions of preterm newborns' movements could have consequences ranging from stress enhancement to impairment of their motor development. Therefore, ability to freely express motor activities appears crucial for their behavioural and physiological development. Our aim was to evaluate behavioural issues of two types of clothing used in NICU. We observed 18 healthy 34–37 post-conception week-old preterm newborns, during resting periods, when they were undisturbed by any interventions. Newborns wore either light clothing (bodysuit and a light wrapping) or heavy clothing (pyjamas, cardigan and sleep-sack). The percentages of time each subject spent in different postures were compared between clothing situations. Arm and hand postures differed in relation to clothing: babies bent their arms more and held their hands nearer their heads when in bodysuits than when in sleepwear. Consequently, babies in bodysuits spent more time touching their body or their environment whereas the others generally were touching nothing. Self-touch is an important way to comfort one's self. Heavy clothing may impair self-soothing behaviours of preterm newborn babies that already lack other forms of contact. Results suggest that more attention should be paid to apparently routine and marginal decisions such as choice of clothes.

Simple Shapes Elicit Different Emotional Responses in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Neurotypical Children and Adults

“…Self-centred activities of both neurotypical children and children with ASD decreased and so did neurotypical children’s redirected activities. As self-contact is known to have a soothing effect ( Durier et al, 2015 ), children may be reassuring themselves while waiting for a stimulus to appear. Both children with ASD and NT children reacted similarly in other stressful experimental situations (e.g., encountering an unfamiliar pet; Grandgeorge et al, 2011 , 2012 ).…”

The human newborn’s umwelt: Unexplored pathways and perspectives

“…So far, behavioral data such as facial expressions (Gibbins et al, 2008;Grunau et al, 1990), body movements (Durier et al, 2015;Morison et al, 2003), crying (Gaspardo et al, 2008;Owens & Todt, 1984), gaze durations , or head orientation (Schaal et al, 1998) have proved very useful to evaluate newborns' responses to different kinds of stimulation. However, quantitative behavioral evaluations are still lacking, although they would be a promising way to develop noninvasive methods to evaluate newborns' reactions to sensory stimulations.…”

A Naturalistic Observation of Spontaneous Touches to the Body and Environment in the First 2 Months of Life

“…This transition typically translates into a slight decrease in nearly all hand to body self-touch activities, aside from hand-to-mouth movements which increase in postnatal life (Kurjak et al, 2004). Prematurely born infants also tend to move their hands to their head, the only part of their body not covered in clothing (Durier et al, 2015). The authors suggested that this postnatal increase in self-touch activity to the head could be related to self-soothing responses which again could be interpreted as evidence of an emerging sense of the self.…”