Oral feeding of premature babies is problematic because of the immaturity of the newborns and the need for prolonged hospitalization after birth. To characterize the newborns of the intensive care unit submitted for speech pathology evaluation from December 2012 through May 2013, we applied an evaluation instrument for preterm readiness for oral feeding (Fujinaga 2005). All subjects were evaluated at the Hospital Santa Clara, Complexo Hospitalar Irmandade Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre, by using the academic measuresof speech pathology of the Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA). We evaluated 35 newborns; 80% had a corrected age greater than or equal to 34 weeks. Of the newborns, 54.28% were fed by orogastric tube and 20% were orally fed by breastfeeding. In the assessment items State of Organization of Behavior, Oral Attitude, Oral Reflex, and Non-Nutritive Sucking, 8.57% of newborns obtained adequate results. The most significant differences were observed in Maintenance of Suction Rhythm; 60% of the sample was considered, and the numbers of arrhythmic Sucks for Pause (S/P) were <5 S/P in 34.28% and >8 S/P in 31.43%. In this study, it was possible to characterize the sample referred for speech pathology evaluation. Regarding early oral feeding,a high frequency of changes compared with Standard for Suction was identified.
