PIOMI Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention

14/07/2026

❓ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐌𝐈 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧?

If your baby is born preterm, feeding may be one of your biggest early challenges. Many preterm babies need time to learn how to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing. That’s where PIOMI comes in. 💜

💡 PIOMI stands for Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention. This gentle, 5-minute therapy is used in the NICU to support feeding skills in preterm babies, often starting around 29 weeks of development.

👐 What does PIOMI involve?
Trained healthcare professionals gently stimulate the lips, cheeks, tongue, and gums with a gloved pinky finger.

This mimics the oral experiences a baby would have in the womb and can help strengthen the muscles and coordination needed for oral feeding.

👶 How can PIOMI help?
Research shows that preterm babies who receive PIOMI may experience:
🔹 Earlier readiness to start oral feeding
🔹 Faster transition to full oral feedings (less time on tubes)
🔹 Shorter hospital stays
🔹 Improved coordination of sucking, swallowing, and breathing
🔹 Better breastfeeding success, even months after discharge

Some studies also suggest more sustained breastfeeding at one year of age.

🌱 More than just feeding support
Feeding is closely linked to a baby’s overall development. That’s why PIOMI may also contribute to:
🔹 Better fine and gross motor development
🔹 Improved language and social-emotional skills
🔹 Stronger neurodevelopmental outcomes in the first year

✨ Why is this important?
For many preterm babies, feeding is one of the biggest milestones before going home. PIOMI can give them a gentle head start – supporting their transition to oral feeding step by step, and at their own pace. 💗

14/07/2026

I am proud to be #2 of the Top 10 Most Productive Authors and in Most Relevant Authors in oral and oromotor stimulation-based neonatal research. The #1 spot is represented by Fucile's seminal work from 2002, informing my own research which began in 2012 and has since been the primary driver of the upward trajectory away from descriptions of feeding problems to standardised intervention-focused studies (PIOMI) and functional feeding outcomes.

I am proud to be #2 of the Top 10 Most Productive Authors and in Most Relevant Authors in oral and oromotor stimulation-based neonatal research. The #1 spot is represented by Fucile's seminal work from 2002, informing my own research which began in 2012 and has since been the primary driver of the u...

22/06/2026

The June 20th 3 hour live PIOMI Training Webinar was a success! There are 21 more PIOMI Providers taking PIOMI to their NICUs in Japan, China, Brazil, UAE, 3 states in the USA, Korea, Greece, India, Kuwait, Turkey, and Taiwan. Congratulations to all!! I enjoyed meeting and training each of you!

19/06/2026

Another PIOMI Training Course in Turkey! June 13 2026 In Şanlıurfa – The City Where History Began!
Thank you to my PIOMI Trainers Selver GÜLER and Zerrin Çiğdem and the Turkish Association of Pediatric Nurses (and sponsorhip from HIPP) for their dedication!

11/06/2026

In Tainan, Taiwan this week training a group of about 120 providers from NICUs throughout Taiwan. Thank you to my colleague Chun-Chi Huang , whom I trained in 2018, for driving this initiative. I’m honored to also serve on her dissertation committee while I am here as she defends a proposed model to expand PIOMI across Taiwan.

01/06/2026

A great methodological study on how to translate PIOMI Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention into a different language while ensuring content validity, cultural equivalence, linguistic equivalence, and implementation consistency (fidelity) among 117 NICU nurses. This study then followed up with an RCT testing the new Chinese version on 76 preterm infants. OUTSTANDING WORK!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18HoJ6HJfU/

BackgroundOral motor intervention plays a critical role in facilitating nutritional intake and supporting neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants. The...

16/05/2026

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWzHTozDD_F/?igsh=bnI0ZDB3eTl0M295