Study aim: Comparison of the effects of abdominal massage and tactile stimulation on gastrointestinal function, weight, and comfort of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Design: the study is a clinical trial with a control group, a parallel design, non-blinded, with random allocation, conducted on 30 hospitalized newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) (30 infants in the intervention group and 30 in the control group). Six-member block randomization is used. Settings and conduct: Duration and groups: 5 days, group A receives abdominal massage and group B simple abdominal palpation for 15 minutes twice a day (9:00 AM and 9:00 PM); intervention one hour before feeding. With checking the baby's stability (vital signs, confirmed by the doctor), changing diapers if needed, washing hands; performed only if calm and alert. ; control group receives routine developmental care. Participants/Inclusion and exclusion criteria: Inclusion criteria:Preterm infants with stable physical and physiologic conditions, oral feeding, a birth weight over 1000 g, and a gestational age of 30–37 weeks, without any abnormalities. Exclusion criteria:The presence of any prohibitions on performing massage. Intervention groups: Intervention: The researcher will, for 5 days, twice daily at 12-hour intervals (9:00 AM and 9:00 PM), one hour before infant feeding, for 15 minutes each time, perform abdominal massage for Group A and gentle abdominal touch for Group B. Both intervention groups and the control group will receive all routine department interventions according to developmental care. Main outcome variables: AGastrointestinal function, weight, and comfort of premature infants