Helping Baby Feed With Music

How cool is this? Music can be used to help your underweight infant learn to feed better. 

When my first son was born (39 weeks) he only weighed 5 lbs 4 oz. He dropped down to 4 lbs 10 oz before we left the hospital, and we were ready to be told that we’d need to spend some extra time in there before we were allowed to discharge. He wasn’t born prematurely, but needless to say, his weight gain and feeding was at the forefront of my mind for the next several months. 

In order to feed properly, whether breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, infants need to master the sucking reflex. Especially if your baby is born prematurely- before they have matured physiologically- they will need some help with gaining weight. Music therapists have figured out a way to teach babies to suck using music!  

Using a pacifier that plays music when activated by the sucking, babies can learn to increase the frequency, duration, and strength of their sucking because they are expecting and wanting the reward of the music. This leads to faster weight gain in the NICU, which translates to a faster discharge. Win/win for the parents and the hospital! The NICU will spend less money ($2000/day!!!) on those preemies who can discharge more quickly; and the new parents get to bring their bundle of joy home sooner… obvs the #1 goal.  

Did you have any struggles with feeding your baby?