Feeding dysfunction: a nursing diagnosis for infants who resist oral feeding.

This paper reports a project that identified and validated a nursing diagnosis for the problem of ineffective infant feeding behaviors--feeding dysfunction. Three validation phases were used for development of the diagnosis. During the first phase the literature review provided information about the problem, the etiologies, and the defining characteristics. Phase two of the validation process utilized nurse specialists who were surveyed for their expert judgment of the etiologies and defining characteristics. The third validation phase used case studies of several infants together with assessment of the infants' feeding abilities to validate further the etiologies and defining characteristics. Support for the diagnosis infant feeding dysfunction was evident.