A baby’s feeding may look simple, but for families and doctors, what happens during those few minutes can reveal much more than whether a newborn is getting enough to eat.
Atlanta-born startup nfant is bringing its FDA-cleared feeding technology from the neonatal intensive care unit into homes with the Thrive Feeding System, a platform designed to provide real-time data on bottle and breastfeeding. Founded in 2012 by engineer and entrepreneur Tommy Cunningham, PhD, and Gilson Capilouto, PhD, SLP, a specialist in neonatal feeding disorders, nfant aims to give parents and clinicians objective information about infant feeding.
The need is significant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 10 babies born in the United States are born prematurely, meaning before 37 weeks of pregnancy. nfant identifies newborn feeding challenges as the leading cause of delayed hospital discharge and readmission.
Cunningham, nfant’s co-founder and CEO, said the company originally set out to help babies learn to feed and transition out of the NICU sooner and healthier. Its mission has since expanded to helping families better understand feeding.
“We started nfant to help babies learn how to feed on their own and transition out of the neonatal intensive care unit sooner and healthier,” Cunningham said. “That mission has since evolved to be a little broader to help parents understand feeding.”
nfant introduced the first Internet of Things (IoT) baby bottle cleared by the FDA, for use in the NICU. The Thrive Bottle uses a sensor to capture information about how a baby feeds, including the strength and coordination of tongue movements, and sends that information to the nfant Tracker App.
The technology grew out of Cunningham’s background in engineering and biomechanics. He said he recognized an opportunity to apply data and technology to an often-overlooked challenge.
“Feeding is actually the most complicated skill a baby has to learn how to do on their own,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said measuring a baby’s tongue movements could provide insight into neurological and neuromuscular development because the brain controls the tongue.
“If you think about feeding as a window into the brain, [the] brain controls the tongue,” Cunningham said.
The technology can also provide information when tongue-tie, a condition that restricts the tongue’s range of motion, is a concern. Cunningham said nfant can dynamically measure how a baby feeds, giving clinicians additional information as they consider whether intervention may be appropriate.
The system is not intended to replace medical professionals. Instead, it provides parents and clinicians with another objective measure of how a baby is feeding.
The Thrive Feeding System also addresses breastfeeding, where uncertainty about how much milk a baby is receiving can be a major source of stress.
“The primary reason why moms stop breastfeeding is because they don’t know how much baby’s getting,” Cunningham said.
Thrive Breast uses different technology to provide information about milk flow and volume during breastfeeding or pumping. The system also connects with the nfant Tracker App, allowing parents to track feeding patterns and share information with pediatricians, feeding specialists and other members of their care team.
nfant uses de-identified feeding data for research and product improvement, working with researchers at hospitals and academic institutions to study feeding patterns and improve its algorithms and products.
In a recent clinical study of NICU infants born before 30 weeks of gestational age, use of nfant’s Thrive Bottle and Control Flow Nipples was associated with an average eight-day reduction in feeding-related NICU stays. The study also reported no observed readmissions, modified barium swallow studies or G-tube placements for weight gain among the infants studied. nfant products are now used in more than 70 hospitals nationwide.
The technology became personal for Cunningham after his son Joey was born at Piedmont Hospital and began losing weight. Cunningham brought an early prototype to the hospital and worked with Dr. Capilouto, neonatologists, lactation consultants and speech-language pathologists to better understand Joey’s feeding.
Within hours, Cunningham said Joey had a successful latch and was able to go home.
“It became real right then,” Cunningham said.
What began in Atlanta as a technology designed to help NICU babies feed is now expanding into the home, giving families and care teams another way to understand one of the most fundamental parts of a baby’s first year.
“Anything we can do to lower the stress level for parents and get them prepared to feed their baby and have better results for babies feeding, that’s our mission,” Cunningham said.
