An innovative automatic feeding device for preterm infants: promoting the development of sucking ability

Area of Science:

• Neonatal Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering
• Pediatric Gastroenterology

Background:

• Preterm infants (before 32 weeks gestation) struggle with enteral nutrition due to poor sucking-swallowing-breathing coordination.
• Conventional feeding methods like nasogastric tubes neglect the crucial role of sucking in gastrointestinal development and function.
• Sucking activity stimulates gastrointestinal motility and digestive enzyme secretion, vital for infant development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel sucking-rewarded automatic feeding device for preterm infants.
• To evaluate the device's impact on feeding safety, efficiency, and infant development.
• To assess the device's potential for improving neonatal care practices.

Main Methods:

• Development of a device with a specialized pacifier detecting sucking activity to trigger milk delivery via a gastric tube.
• Continuous monitoring of sucking waveforms to assess infant viability and sucking maturity.
• Clinical pilot study in 25 preterm infants and complementary experiments in 12 newborn beagle puppies.

Main Results:

• Preterm infants fed with the device showed significantly increased intestinal oxygen saturation compared to conventional gavage feeding (p < 0.05).
• Beagle puppies exhibited faster gastric emptying rates (p < 0.01) and elevated gastrointestinal hormone levels (p < 0.05) with the device.
• The device promotes sucking-induced satiety and provides objective measures of infant sucking maturity.

Conclusions:

• The sucking-rewarded automatic feeding device shows significant clinical potential for improving feeding outcomes in preterm infants.
• The device enhances intestinal oxygenation and gastrointestinal function, suggesting improved feeding tolerance and development.
• Further large-scale clinical trials are warranted to validate the device's efficacy and integration into neonatal intensive care units.