Wireless Monitoring System for Oral-Feeding Evaluation of Preterm Infants

Abstract

The oral feeding disorder is one of the important indicators for the high risk group of neurodevelopment delay. The procedure of oral feeding requires the coordination of sucking, swallowing, and breathing activities, and it is the most complex sensorimotor process for newborn infants. Premature infants often uneasily complete the procedure of oral feeding. However, the evaluation of the oral feeding disorders and severity are usually dependent on the subjective clinical experience of the physician. Monitoring the sucking-swallowing-breathing activities directly is difficult for preterm infants. In this study, a wireless monitoring system for oral-feeding evaluation of full term and preterm infants was proposed to objectively and quantitatively evaluate the coordination of suck-swallow-respiration function during oral feeding. Moreover, the ratios of the swallowing and breathing event numbers to the sucking event number were defined to evaluate the coordination of suck-swallow-respiration function during oral feeding. Finally, the system performance was validated and the coordination of suck-swallow-respiration function for full term and preterm infants during oral feeding was also investigated.

5G Smart Mobility Management Based Fuzzy Logic Controller Unit

“…The LTE-A networks offload solution is guaranteed by widely deployed WiFi access point. WLAN interworking support is provided by LTE-A specifications [19], it includes seamless and nonseamless mobility, at core network level [20]. The Fig.…”

A Pilot Study of Developing an Infant Sucking Tester Instrument

“…In recent decades, the survival rate of preterm infants has substantially increased due to improved neonatal care [3]. Despite this improvement, the preterm infants' organs are still immature, and these conditions bring about some problems for them [4].…”

“…The development of sucking behavior is expected to mature between 34 and 42 postmenstrual age and is usually continued for six months after birth in children [7]. The evidence shows that preterm infants with oral feeding disorder are identified as the high-risk ones for developmental delay, and the performance of infants in sucking may be regarded as the significant predictor of their developmental profile in the first year of old [4,8]. In addition, the sucking performance is an indicator of the function of the brain in infants [8][9][10].…”

“…Several possible reasons have been suggested for the oral feeding disorder in preterm infants, including incomplete development of the orofacial organs, problems in the central nervous system, and immature development of the cardiorespiratory system. This disorder may lead to apnea and bradycardia in infants [3,4,12].…”

A Novel System to Measure Infants’ Nutritive Sucking During Breastfeeding: the Breastfeeding Diagnostic Device (BDD)

“…Intraoral pressure in infants were reportedly captured during bottle-feeding by several research groups via a customized feeding bottle with an embedded pressure sensor [31] – [36] . More recently, studies have been performed to evaluate contacting force applied by infant tongue to nipple and coordination of sucking, swallowing and breathing during bottle-feeding [37] – [40] . In contrast, studies that measure intraoral pressure during breast feeding are scarce.…”