Evaluation of breastfeeding of very low birth weight infants: can we use the infant breastfeeding assessment tool?

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of the Infant Breastfeeding Assessment Tool (IBFAT, Matthews, 1993) to assess breastfeeding in very low birth weight (VLBW, < 1.5 kg) infants. Thirty-four mothers of singleton VLBW infants completed the IBFAT and underwent a standardized feeding observation at 35 weeks corrected age. Median feeding duration was 14.5 minutes (range, 1-20), intake per feed was 6.0 mL (range, 0-60), and intake rate was 0.5 mL/minute (range, 0-3). IBFAT scores were correlated with feeding observation measures. The IBFAT summary score was significantly correlated with milk intake volume (r = 0.651, P < .001) and intake rate (r = 0.559, P = .001). The IBFAT sucking quality score was significantly associated with percent time sucking (r = 0.559, P = .001) and sucking bursts (r = 0.632, P< .001 on the feeding observation. The authors conclude that although IBFAT scores correlated with objective feeding measures, these data do not support use of the IBFAT to identify infants with adequate as compared to inadequate intakes. Further study is needed.