While many parents extol the virtues of breastfeeding, it can be quite difficult to tell how much milk a breastfeeding infant is consuming. An experimental new wearable device addresses that problem, using an electrical current to gauge milk intake in real time.
First of all, there are already methods of measuring breast milk consumption in babies, but they're far from perfect.
A baby can be weighed before and after feeding, for instance, but doing so may be awkward if the infant is uncooperative, plus a specialized highly-sensitive scale is required. Mothers can also pump their milk into bottles of a known volume, then feed their baby from those bottles, but that means they miss out on valuable skin-to-skin contact with the infant.
That's where the new device comes in.
Developed by Prof. John A. Rogers and colleagues at Illinois' Northwestern University, it consists of two pairs of electrodes that are hardwired to a "base station" module located between them. That module contains a rechargeable battery, Bluetooth unit, and memory chip.
All three components are adhered to the mother's skin so that the two pairs of electrodes are located on either side of her breast. The cord wraps lightly around the breast, placing the base station above it.
Once activated, the device painlessly passes a weak electrical current through the breast, flowing from one pair of electrodes to the other. As the current travels through the breast, its impedance is affected by a given amount, based on the volume of milk that is present in the organ at any one time.
The base station records those changes in impedance, and transmits the data to an app on the mother's smartphone. That app is in turn able to determine how much milk is currently leaving the breast and going into the baby. Calibrating the device for each mother simply involves using it while pumping milk from the breast into a measured bottle. Doing so establishes what volume of milk corresponds to what amount of change in the electrical current.
When tested on 12 breastfeeding mothers over periods of up to 17 weeks, the technology was found to be highly accurate at gauging their infants' milk consumption.
The scientists are now exploring methods of using the setup to measure the rate at which the breasts are replenished with milk, and to gauge the quality of the milk. It is hoped that the technology could ultimately be integrated into garments such as breastfeeding bras.
"Knowing exactly how much milk an infant is receiving during breastfeeding has long been a challenge for both parents and healthcare providers," says Rogers. "This technology eliminates that uncertainty, offering a convenient and reliable way to monitor milk intake in real time, whether in the hospital or at home."
The research is described in a paper that was recently published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Source: Northwestern University
