A noninvasive method for determining patterns of milk intake in the breast-fed infant

A noninvasive adaptation of the test-weighing method has been devised for continuously monitoring milk intake in breast-fed infants. This procedure consists of counting the number of swallows from videotaped sessions of individual feeds and correlating them to the corresponding pre- and postnursing weights of the infants. The method has been tested on four nursing sessions in twins aged 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 months. A high correlation was found between swallow counts and weight gain of the babies. The patterns of milk intake as monitored by these two parameters were similar. This method has the advantage of not disrupting the natural nursing process because test-weighing during the feeding session is not necessary. In addition, it allows for longitudinal studies and uses relatively simple equipment, i.e., a balance and a video camera. It is further suggested that monitoring swallowing in the manner described herein may be a valuable addition to studies on sucking behavior in human infants. Finally, it is noted from the data presented that the pattern of milk transfer in a mother breast-feeding twins is different from that observed in mothers breast-feeding singletons who were monitored by means of a cross-sectional test-weighing procedure.