Hayes and Adamson-Macedo42 reported a case study of
a 27-week GA infant who was observed under 4 different
tactile stimulation conditions using a counterbalanced
study design over a 3-day period that began when the infant
was 5 days old. The conditions included a cephalocaudal
stroking procedure, called “touching and caressing—tender
in caring” (TAC-TIC) therapy, with light stroking pressure;
TAC-TIC therapy with deep stroking pressure; a comfort
condition that involved 3 minutes of still, gentle touch;
and a control condition of spontaneous activity when the
infant was lying alone with no intervention. There were
no changes in mean heart rate values across the 4 conditions,
nor before, during, or after any of the conditions.
However, there were more distress behaviors during the
TAC-TIC deep stroking procedure, compared with the control
or comfort positions, and there were fewer distress behaviors
during the comfort condition than during the spontaneous
condition