Objective To investigate the effectiveness of oral sucking training in improving poor sucking behaviors among breastfeeding infants, so as to provide effective means to improve the breastfeeding rates.

Methods A total of 264 infants with suckling disorders who first visited breastfeeding consultation outpatient clinic of the child health care department in Nanjing Women and Children’s Healthcare Hospital, Jiangsu Province from September 2021 to April 2022 were recruited as study subjects. They were randomly divided into experimental and control group, with 132 in each group. The control group received routine breast-feeding instruction, and the experimental group received systematic oral sucking training plus routine care, including bilateral cheek muscle training, gum massage, non-nutritive sucking training and tongue following training. After training, the differences between the two groups in the scores of Latch/Audible/Type of nipple/Comfort/Hold positioning (LATCH), the proportion of exclusive breastfeeding, and physical growth were evaluated.

Results After intervention, the LATCH scores of both groups were significantly improved, and the LATCH score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (t = 14.54, P < 0.05). Compared with pre-intervention, the proportion of exclusive breastfeeding in both groups increased post-intervention, and the experimental group had a higher proportion of exclusive breastfeeding than that of the control group (χ² = 3.952, P < 0.05). At the same time, the length and weight of both groups increased after intervention, and the differences in the experimental group were greater than those in the control group (t_length = 2.51, t_weight = 16.97, all P < 0.05).

Conclusion Oral sucking training can effectively improve the condition of breastfeeding, increase the rate of breastfeeding and promote physical growth of infants. It is an effective intervention for infants with poor sucking behaviors in breastfeeding.