The Effect of Positional Support on Tolerance of Wakeful Prone in Infants

ABSTRACT

Supervised wakeful prone promotes motor milestones. Indications are that many infants do not receive adequate prone, with poor tolerance as a contributing factor. A common suggestion is the use of positional support. Aims: This study has two main purposes: (1) To determine whether varied levels of positional support affect the duration of time spent in prone, and (2) to determine the effect of positional support with respect to infant size. Methods: A convenience sample of 32 healthy infants ranging in size, aged 3.3 ± 0.04 months, were placed in prone in three counterbalanced randomized levels of positional support: a flat blanket (Blanket condition), a rolled blanket (Roll condition), and a pillow (Boppy condition). Results: There were significant differences in time spent in prone with the Boppy condition affording infants up to three more min in prone across three repeated trials. There were no significant interaction effects between condition and infant size measurements. Conclusions: These results provide evidence for increasing positional support, such as through use of a Mini Boppy®, to facilitate tolerance for prone for infants of all sizes.

KEYWORDS. :

• Infant development
• motor development
• prone positioning