Ten premature infants who had recovered from the respiratory distress syndrome were subjected to cricoid compression during mask ventilation. Each infant was ventilated with an AMBU face mask for 3 min with the nasogastric (NG) tube, without the NG tube, and without the NG tube but applying cricoid pressure during ventilation. The results of the study indicated that, similar to insertion of an NG tube, cricoid compression can prevent gastric inflation during mask ventilation.