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The sale of "musical nipple" for premature infants
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
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A musical device has been released on the market that helps preterm infants to learn how to suck, according to ScienceDaily.
As is known, strongly premature babies due to underdevelopment of the nervous system can not properly coordinate the sucking, swallowing and respiratory movements and therefore can not feed themselves. Learning to suck is a vital necessity for such babies.
Professor of music therapy at the University of Florida, Jane Standley (Jayne Standley) just ten years ago came up with how to help the premature. Its offspring, she called Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL). It is an electronic device in the form of a nipple, into which a microphone is mounted. When the infant makes sucking movements, a pleasant, tender melody of a lullaby is heard from the microphone as a reinforcement. The child likes music and, so that it does not disappear, the baby tries to continue to make sucking movements.
Long-term clinical trials have shown that with PAL premature babies master the art of sucking 2.5 times faster than without this device. Thanks to PAL, the length of stay of premature babies in hospital conditions is reduced by an average of five days. The medical staff of the clinics in which the device was tested speaks of its surprising effectiveness.
The "Musical Nipple" is especially relevant in the situation of an increase in the number of premature births in all countries of the world (in the USA this indicator has grown by 36 percent over the last 30 years). The device has already received an American patent and approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Powers Device Technologies Inc., which is launching a new medical product on the market, began selling PAL to hospitals around the world.