Premature babies can be taught to feed more efficiently using a therapy combining the sound of their mothers voice and a dummy-activated music player.
A randomised clinical trial was used to test 94 premature babies. For 15 minutes a day for five consecutive days the babies were given a dummy connected to a music player. When they sucked on their dummy correctly they were rewarded with a recording of their mother singing a lullaby. When they stopped sucking the recording would stop.
The results of the study show that babies who received the treatment fed more frequently, developed a stronger sucking ability and had shorter hospitalisations. The babies who participated in the study had their feeding tubes removed up to a week earlier than babies who did not.
Read more at Vanderbilt University