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A "musical pacifier" for premature babies is on sale now
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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A musical device that helps premature babies learn to suck has hit the market, ScienceDaily reports.
As is known, very premature babies, due to the underdevelopment of the nervous system, cannot properly coordinate sucking, swallowing and breathing movements and therefore cannot feed themselves. Learning to suck is a vital necessity for such babies.
Florida State University music therapy professor Jayne Standley came up with a way to help premature babies ten years ago. She called her brainchild the Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL). It is an electronic device in the form of a pacifier with a microphone built into it. When the baby sucks, a pleasant, gentle melody of a lullaby is heard from the microphone as reinforcement. The baby likes the music and, so that it does not disappear, the baby tries to continue making 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 is reduced by an average of five days. Medical staff of the clinics where the device was tested speak of its amazing effectiveness.
The "musical pacifier" is especially relevant in the context of the growing number of premature births worldwide (in the United States, this figure has increased by 36 percent over the past 30 years). The device has already received a U.S. patent and approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Powers Device Technologies Inc., the company bringing the new medical product to market, has begun selling PAL to hospitals around the world.