If you’re like me, you’ve used “Lullaby and Good Night” (and maybe remembered all the words) to get your children to sleep. But researchers are finding it’s not only good for helping little ones doze off; it may also save lives.
One of the greatest hurdles premature babies face is their inability to suck, or feed. But a new type of musical pacifier may be about to solve that.
Researchers at Florida State University have announced a new medical device that uses lullabies to help premature babies overcome their inability to feed.
The Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL) uses music to help infants quickly learn the muscle movements needed to suck, and ultimately feed, reducing the length of a premature infant’s hospital stay by an average of five days.
PAL is now being sold to hospitals around the world through a partnership with Powers Device Technologies, Inc.
“Unlike full-term infants, very premature babies come into the world lacking the neurologic ability to coordinate a suck/swallow/breathe response for oral feeding,” said Jayne Standley, Florida State’s Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Music Therapy, and inventor of PAL. “The longer it takes them to learn this essential skill, the further behind in the growth process they fall. PAL uses musical lullaby reinforcement to speed this process up, helping them feed sooner and leave the hospital sooner.”
According to the press release, PAL “uses a specially wired pacifier and speaker to provide musical reinforcement every time a baby sucks on it correctly.” The lullabies are gentle and pleasant to the baby, making them want to continue the sucking motion so they can hear more of the lullaby.
I was stunned to learn my newborn son had to actually learn how to suck and swallow and breathe; he wasn’t born knowing this, and I remember being terrified that he wouldn’t. Even at almost nine pounds, he did indeed have to learn this. Thankfully it didn’t take long.
Clinical studies conducted by Standley at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH), University of Georgia Hospital in Athens, University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill and Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, La., showed that infants “will increase their sucking rates up to 2.5 times more than infants not exposed to the musical reinforcement.”
A recent story at sciencedaily.com also reports that new research “links exposure to an audio recording of mom's heartbeat and her voice to lower incidence of cardio-respiratory events in preterm infants.”
At full term, most babies weigh between six and nine pounds. Preemies, on the other hand, can weigh as little as an empty soda can, especially if there are multiple births.
“It’s amazing to watch how much quicker our babies are able to learn the sucking motion after they have used PAL,” said Terry Stevens, a neonatal intensive-care unit nurse at TMH. “They are ready to eat sooner, they go home from the hospital earlier, they tolerate their feedings better; it’s just a phenomenal improvement overall.”
Edited by
Braden Becker
