ORAL-FEEDING EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR PRETERM INFANTS

Abstract: Feeding by sucking is the most important activity performed by babies on daily basis. Feeding and swallowing disorders are common in early infancy; early detection may cure certain fatal disorders in future. In Clinical experiments, improper feeding showed negative impacts on growth, neuro and cognitive developments, therefore it has become a high risk of neurodevelopmental delays in premature babies. In this study a method to assist infant's oral feeding and sucking behaviour is presented and experimentally validated. A monitoring system was developed to monitor the oral feeding events continuously and objectively. This device can be easily integrated in a commercially available feeding bottle, allowing clinical methods development for screening large numbers of subjects, in a quantitative manner. The results showed that the proposed approach showed accurate measurement of intra-oral pressure for neuromotor control analysis and estimation of milk volume delivered to the mouth.

Keywords: oral feeding disorder, infant monitoring system, oral feeding activities.