The EIP has beneficial effects on neonatal neurobehavioural development and maternal mental health of low birthweight infants with cerebral injuries. This evidence suggests that short-term changes in maternal mental health and infant neurobehaviour promoted by an EIP may serve to initiate a positive interaction between parents and infants.

KC effectively promoted neonatal behavioral organization and enhanced developmental outcome over the first year of life for LBW infants.

No abstract

Background: Infants with neonatal cerebral insults are susceptible to excessive crying as a result of difficulties with self-regulation. Aims: To compare the effectiveness of swaddling versus massage therapy in the management of excessive crying of infants with cerebral insults. Methods: Randomised three-week parallel comparison of the efficacy of two intervention methods. Infants with symptoms of troublesome crying and their parents were randomly assigned to a swaddling intervention group (n = 13) or a massage intervention group (n = 12). Results: The amount of total daily crying decreased significantly in the swaddling group, but did not decrease significantly in the massage group. Infant behavioural profiles and maternal anxiety levels improved significantly in the swaddling group post-intervention. Parents in the swaddling group were more satisfied with the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing crying than parents in the massage group. Conclusion: Results indicate that swaddling may be more effective than massage intervention in reducing crying in infants with cerebral injuries. I nfants with brain lesions are easily over-stimulated and have difficulty in dealing with environmental stimuli, exhibiting neurobehavioural disorganisation including poor self-regulation. Such behaviour causes a dilemma for parents, as infants may be over-stimulated by normal nurturing behaviour such as rocking, touching, and other forms of physical interaction. Excessive crying, such as persistent inconsolable crying, causes enormous parental stress, which in turn affects the development of the parentinfant relationship.1-3 The cause of troublesome crying is not known, but it is presumed to be an excessive neurophysiological response caused by central nervous system (CNS) irritation or dysfunction to external and internal stimulation.Several intervention studies have been carried out on healthy newborns with infantile colic. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Parental counselling is beneficial, and is considered important in the current management of troublesome crying; it also provides an opportunity to support the infant-parent relationship. [4][5][6][7] Infant massage has been suggested for the treatment of colicky infants and may become more widely used.8 In addition, massage therapy has been reported to promote growth and development in premature infants 9 10 and to improve early mother-infant interaction.11 However, other studies have found that infant massage is not effective for the treatment of infantile colic, when measured by the outcome of reduction in hours of crying. 13Some previous studies have reported that swaddling has a calming, sleep promoting effect on infants.14-17 Also, several studies of nursing care for premature infants have suggested that when infants are swaddled they spend more time in quiet sleep, exhibit fewer motor responses to stimuli, show more effective self-regulatory ability, and cry less than when unswaddled.18 19 It has been hypothesised that swaddling may effectively reduce cryin...

The purposes of this study were (1) to evaluate the usefulness of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) as a tool to assess the risk of later behavioral problems, (2) to analyze the relationship between neonatal behavioral characteristics and behavioral problems in childhood. Subjects were 77 very-low-birth-weight infants admitted to the NICU at the Nagasaki University Hospital, Nagasaki, Japan. The results suggest that behavioral characteristics such as poor motor performance, poor state regulation, and poor interaction ability in the neonatal period are risk factors for behavioral problems in childhood. The NBAS could help clinicians to identify neonates at risk of later behavioral problems.