Customized Infant Feeding

About

Summary: Breastfeeding is widely accepted as the optimal method of feeding infants, providing critical nutrients and immunities from the mother. Some families experience breastfeeding problems, others need to maintain breastfeeding in the face of mother-infant separation. Current devices such as breast pumps and bottles do a poor job of mimicking natural breastfeeding. Furthermore, the highest quality devices are not covered by basic insurance, leaving a sizable portion of the target demographic with pumps that deliver suboptimal performance. This technology describes a series of devices that mimic the infant’s normal suckling to improve breast pumps and alternate feeding. This technology can be used to diagnose breast pumping and allow for greater product customization, as each device can be tailored to mother’s breast and nipple characteristics. Additionally, a nipple that better supports normal infant sucking can be used to deliver expressed milk to the baby, and can be customized to help strengthen weak sucking. This technology provides an efficient, high quality system for infant feeding.