NFANT Labs has developed nfant Feeding Solution, a medical device that displays and records feeding metrics in real time, as well as nfant Analytics, a cloud-based reporting platform that applies machine learning to this data. nfant Nipples provide a consistent feeding experience for infants through highly controlled flow rates which current nipple options lack.

Why is feeding such a challenge for some babies? Because the task requires both coordination and strength -- two elements that newborns often lacks.

However newborns can’t tell us they are struggling resulting in fluid being inhaled instead of swallowed.  This leads to continued instability in infants and stress on families.

Lacking objective measurements, medical providers must use basic observation (such as letting a baby suck on their finger) to identify and monitor feeding ability. Meanwhile, most other developmental milestones have quantifiable targets. 

Additionally, babies are seen by a variety of medical providers during their 24/7 care. Clinical teams struggle to create and execute an effective plan of care due to the lack of meaningful data points related to an infant’s feeding skill. These babies are often the most cared for, yet inconsistent care still results in poor outcomes.

Feeding complications can result in physiological instability including bradycardia (slow heart rate), apnea (stop breathing), and failure to thrive (failure to gain weight).

Complications from feeding issues are a main rate limiting factor for discharge from the NICU and can greatly increase a baby’s hospital stay, ranging anywhere from 2 to 45 additional days. Each additional day can cost up to $5,000 for care. 

NFANT Labs created a full feeding and documentation system that helps medical providers understand the limitations and development of a baby’s feeding ability. With this information, hospitals and NICU units can identify the most at-risk babies and use the aggregated data to make the best recommendations to ensure success.

The first noninvasive diagnostic tool to measure tongue dynamics during feeding providing real-time objective, actionable data on feeding readiness and the impact of clinical interventions. 

Provides a stable foundation for the entire feeding transition with the most reliable flow rates on the market, providing consistency from feeding to feeding.

Connecting to standard bottles, the devices are small and portable - a sharp contrast to clunky medical devices that these newborns may otherwise encounter in their hospital stay. This difference allows medical providers to gather information on the infant’s progress with an experience that is exactly like a standard feeding. This is unintimidating to parents, comfortable for patients, and familiar to clinicians.

nfant Feeding Solution measures tongue movements providing clinicians with a second by second view of the baby’s suck, swallow, breath pattern.  This pattern is displayed on a cribside tablet, allowing feeders to quickly determine which interventions and flow rates work best for each infant and to educate parents.

This information can be reviewed by caregivers on the tablet, or through nfant Analytics where metrics are compared to full term babies, allowing feeding teams to document and coordinate care.

All of this can help bring healthier babies home sooner.
 

NFANT Labs is quickly expanding as demand remains high for medical devices that deliver insight into infant feeding problems.

NFANT Labs’ devices are used in hospitals and NICUs, where we supply them free of charge for one to two months to gain traction with the medical providers.