Measurement of intra-oral negative air pressure during dummy sucking in human newborn.

Non-nutritive sucking on a dummy was studied in 23 clinically normal full-term infants with a mean gestational age of 40 weeks (SD 1.5). The intra-oral negative air pressure was measured by a miniature air pressure transducer inside a commercial dummy. The sucking pattern in these infants was always composed of periodical changes between sucking burst and interburst periods with a mean rate of 5.3 (SD 1.6) bursts per minute. The mean rate of sucks within a sucking burst was 1.7 (SD 0.2) sucks/sec. The mean value of maximum intra-oral negative air pressure among newborn was 58 mbar (SD 14.6) during dummy sucking. During interburst periods the negative air pressure remained at a mean value of 8.4 mbar (SD 5.8).