Quick Tips: Supporting Babies Eating in the NICU

Our mission at Creative Therapy Consultants is to help babies and families through education. Watch this FREE 15-minute video for Quick Tips: Supporting Babies Eating in the NICU.  View it as many times as needed to enhance your knowledge and skill in supporting infants and families through their feeding journey in the NICU.

One of the most important things to remember every time you pick up an infant to orally feed, is that the infant is doing the feeding, you are just part of their support team. Feeders often want to “feed” infants using “tricks” or habits they’ve learned over the years to “get it in”. We want to help change that mindset so that feeders recognize the baby is doing the eating, we are doing the supporting!

As part of the infant and families’ support team, there are many ways you can improve an infant’s eating success. Every time you feed a specific infant, you are learning and advancing your own responsiveness to that individual infant’s needs. You can then support families as they learn the nuances of feeding their infant and provide their infant with the support he/she needs to be successful at eating.