Which statement best differentiates nutritive from non-nutritive sucking?

Which statement best differentiates nutritive from non-nutritive sucking?

• A. Nutritive sucking involves more sucking and less swallowing.
• B. Non-nutritive sucking uses the suck-swallow-breath sequence.
• C. Nutritive sucking involves more swallowing relative to sucking.
• D. Non-nutritive sucking requires complex coordination with breathing.

Answer: (C)

Nutritive sucking is the pattern you see when an infant is actually feeding milk. It requires coordinated sucking and swallowing, so swallows occur repeatedly within feeding bursts. As a result, there are more swallows relative to the number of sucks, and breathing often aligns with this suck–swallow sequence. Non-nutritive sucking, used for comfort, involves mainly sucking with little or no swallowing, so the swallowing rate is much lower and breathing coordination is less complex. This is why the best differentiator is that nutritive sucking involves more swallowing relative to sucking.

Nutritive sucking is the pattern you see when an infant is actually feeding milk. It requires coordinated sucking and swallowing, so swallows occur repeatedly within feeding bursts. As a result, there are more swallows relative to the number of sucks, and breathing often aligns with this suck–swallow sequence. Non-nutritive sucking, used for comfort, involves mainly sucking with little or no swallowing, so the swallowing rate is much lower and breathing coordination is less complex. This is why the best differentiator is that nutritive sucking involves more swallowing relative to sucking.