SOFFI™: Supporting Oral Feeding in Fragile Infants

This course provides immediately applicable practical information to help clinicians better identify and treat the factors that impact successful oral feeding of preterm and ill term infants. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach both in the NICU and after discharge to early intervention through the first six months the course emphasizes strategies to facilitate infant abilities and develop caregiver feeding skills. Breastfeeding is emphasized as the best feeding method for infants, with some strategies to support breastfeeding. However, most of the feeding strategies are for bottle feedings, since more infant feeding problems occur with bottle feedings. The objective is to identify feeding readiness and provide intervention strategies from a framework of normal development. A holistic approach integrating the medical fragility of these infants is emphasized, using the BROSS approach and SOFFI™.