Wireless monitoring system for oral-feeding evaluation of preterm infants

Feeding and swallowing disorders are relatively common in early infancy. In Clinical, it shows negative impacts on growth and neurodevelopmental, therefore it has become a high risk of neurodevelopmental delays in preterm infants. Oral feeding that requires suckling, swallowing, and breathing coordination, and it is the most complex sensorimotor process for the newborn infant. Currently, both preterm infant´s oral feeding disorders and severity are dependent on subjective clinical experience. Directly monitoring sucking-swallowing-breathing activities of oral is difficult for preterm infants. In this study, a wireless monitoring system for oral feeding of preterm infants was developed to monitor the events of sucking-swallowing-breathing activities continuously and objectively. Finally, the experimental results show that the proposed system can detect the events of sucking, swallowing, and breathing activities effectively.