Clinical Research Studies

This is a research study to evaluate if drinking cold milk (breast milk or formula at 4-9°C Temp) improves swallowing in premature babies who have swallowing dysfunction (also called dysphagia). The research will also see if feeding cold milk to babies is safe. Currently, feeding infants cold milk is not a standard practice at NYU Winthrop NICU. The most prominent characteristic of dysphagia is inadequate airway protection, which can cause the milk to enter the breathing tube instead of the feeding tube to the stomach (aspiration and penetration). Aspiration is when food or liquid passes below the vocal folds, and penetration is when food or liquid enters the airway but not below the vocal folds. The purpose of the study is the examine whether feeding cold milk for the entire feeding (up to 15 minutes) will decrease the incidence of aspiration and penetration as defined above in preterm infants