Maternal Scent and Preterm Infant Nutrition

Premature infants develop their sense of smell very early in the womb. After birth infants can recognize and distinguish the odor of their mother from their father and others. Premature infants are capable of smelling and they experience less pain and agitation when they smell their mother's milk; studies have shown that premature infants have better sucking and feeding, and they may go home earlier when they are exposed to the odor of breast milk. It is not known whether the same will happen if preterm infants are exposed to their mother's smell rather than the smell of the maternal milk.

• Maternal scent cloth (Other): The babies assigned to the intervention group will have a cloth with their mother's scent on it placed under their heads.

Primary outcomes

• Salivary cortisol level [Two years]: The saliva will be collected from infant mouth after enrollment the first day before placing the scented cloth under the infant's head and the second after the exposure to the second cloth. Levels will be compared before and after and between groups.

Secondary outcomes

• Physiological parameters: Heart rate and respiratory rate [Two years]: Infant's heart rate and respiratory rates will be measured.
• Achievement of oral feeding [Two years]: The number of days to reach oral feeding of all prescribed feeds will be recorded from the infant medical record, this will be compared between the intervention and control group.

Sex: All, ages: 5 Days to 10 Days, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

* Mother of a baby who was born premature before completing 36 weeks of pregnancy
* Baby between ages of 5-10 days
* Medically stable baby
* Baby already began feeding by mouth or by feeding tube

Exclusion Criteria:

* Medically unstable baby born after 36 weeks of gestation.

• Lama Charafeddine, MD, Principal investigator, American University of Beirut Medical Center