Effects of tactile and kinesthetic stimulation on premature infants.

Forty premature infants, divided equally into matched treatment and control groups, were studied to determine the effect of compensatory tactile and kinesthetic stimulation on clinical course. The treatment group received a 15-minute period of tactile and kinesthetic stimulation once daily on Days 1-10 postpartum; control group received routine care. Treated infants showed increased stooling frequency on Days 5-10, and increased feeding intake on Days 6-10. Treated infants gained increasingly more weight each day, but these differences did not reach statistical significance. These results suggest that single daily stimulation treatments in the first 10 days postpartum were sufficient to enhance the clinical course of premature infants.