Question:
Hot topic and in need of evidence based research regarding bottle feeding the premature infant (or term infant) with tachypnea.

What is everyone’s practice?  No PO feeding if respiratory rate above 60? 70?  Would appreciate research articles and your hospitals guidelines!

Catherine’s answer:

To my knowledge, there is no research to guide practice but rather the it is often neonatologist training,  preference and the extent to which intake is a key driver in a particular NICU. Neina Ferguson published an informative paper in 2015 about preterm infants in  the NICU that correlated tachypnea during PO with subsequent aspiration in radiology.

Ferguson, N. F., Estis, J., Evans, K., Dagenais, P. A., & VanHangehan, J. (2015). A retrospective examination of prandial aspiration in preterm infants. Perspectives on Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (Dysphagia), 24(4), 162-174.

The paper did not look at impact on physiology in detail, but I clinically see in the NICU population that tachypnea can alter physiology without witnessed aspiration or penetration under fluoroscopy, and thereby create risk for airway invasion.

Some neos write orders to PO if infant is “comfortably tachypneic”, RR under 70.  “Comfortably tachypneic” is a almost parodical , in that tachypnea is rarely co-occurring with a comfortable looking infant, rather infants who are tachypneic may often be  exhibiting other signs of physiologic stress (e.g., nasal flaring/blanching, suprasternal and/or supraclavicular retractions, chin tugging). Increasing RR leads to more shallow insufficient respirations. The need to breathe often and rapidly will create challenges in the swallow-breathe interface, and cause breathing and swallowing to uncouple. It takes a second to complete the pharyngeal swallow, so then a RR over 60 clearly increases risk for airway invasion.

Respiratory Rate, my RT mentors tell me, doesn’t exist in isolation but is rather a part of a bigger picture. Much like, they say, level of respiratory support required does not exist in isolation. It’s each infant’s bigger picture that guides us.

As we advocate and make determinations of relative risk with PO feeding for our preterm infants, we really must look at each infant in the setting of his unique history and co-morbidities and their unique attendant sequelae. An infant post HIE just weaned or HHFNC will require a different algorithm than the former 24 weeker with CLD, contrasted with the term infant who is s/p TEF/EA repair. And, as Dr Coyle says, that is ok. One algorithm won’t work for every patient and it shouldn’t. All of my examples are infant who often have risks for airway invasion but the nuances of each infant will likely yield a slightly different profile from which to problem-solve, with the team.

That is the challenge of our work in the NICU. To look at each infant as a unique patient, and,  in the setting of what we know about him, and what we see clinically, make a well-thought out educated plan to minimize risk, articulate those risks as best we can to the team, establish interventions that optimize safety and assess their impact on an ongoing basis.

In the NICU , we are required to  live in the grey zone…no easy questions and there are no easy answers, more questions than answers, constantly thinking and re-thinking.  Just keep “listening” to each infant Tara, like you are doing, and especially partner with RTs and a neonatologist that respects the complexity of feeding and swallowing so they can think along with you.