Allied health interventions for preterm infants with feeding aversion: a scoping review protocol

Objective: The proposed scoping review will identify and map the literature on allied health interventions for preterm infants with feeding aversion.

Introduction: Infants born preterm can have aversive responses to food in the mouth (eg, avoidance, gagging), which can lead to refusal to eat, poor diet, poor weight gain, long-term tube feeding, and stress and anxiety during mealtimes. There is currently limited evidence on allied health professional interventions for infants with feeding aversion and their families. A comprehensive scoping review will identify allied health interventions to address this issue, as well as potential evidence gaps.

Eligibility criteria: Eligible studies will include infants born preterm (≤37 weeks gestational age), aged ≤12 months (corrected age), with feeding aversion, and their parents/families. Studies will also be eligible if they report on allied health (speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, dietetic, psychology) interventions to improve infants’ oral feeding.

Methods: The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. MEDLINE (Ovid), AMED (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Emcare (Ovid), PsycINFO (ProQuest), and CINAHL (EBSCOhost) databases will be searched from January 2014 onward. PubMed will be searched in its entirety for cited and similar articles. Hand-searches of gray literature, reference lists, and specific professional publications will also be conducted. No language restrictions will be applied. Data published in languages other than English will be translated using free online translation tools. Two reviewers will independently screen studies and extract data using a piloted data extraction form. Descriptive analysis will include narrative summaries, frequency counts, descriptive statistics, and/or basic descriptive qualitative coding and categorizing.

Review registration: Figshare https://figshare.com/articles/preprint/Allied_health_interventions_for_preterm_infants_with_feeding_aversion_Protocol_abstract/26954929?file=49048243