Effects of nonnutritive sucking upon the behavioral arousal of the newborn.

The sample consisted of 20 typical Caucasian infants, 10 males and 10 females, equally distributed between the experimental and control groups. Experimental infants were offered a nonnutritive nipple and permitted to suck to satiety at 1, 4, and 8 hours of age. All infants were offered their first feeding at 12 hours of age. Behavioral arousal of all infants, assessed in accord with the Behavioral Inventory for Assessing States (BIAS), was recorded during comparable time periods at 1, 4, 8, and 12 hours of age. Duration of nutritive sucking, quantity of nutriment consumed, frequency of bubbling, and time required to bubble the infant were monitored during the first feeding. The experimental group engaged in behavioral states characterized by sleep or irritability less frequently and in states characterized by alert wakefulness more frequently than the control group. Feeding exerted no effect upon the behavioral arousal of either group. The experimental group required less time to bubble during feeding than the control group. Results are related to early infant stimulation and to the infant as stimulus in infant-caretaker interaction.