Preemie Pacer

Helping Provide Paced Feeding for Premmies

The Preemie-Pacer bottle is a unique feeding device that enables the caregiver to start and stop the flow of milk during the feeding.

Many of the 450,000 preterm infants in the US require care in the neonatal intensive care unit. To be discharged, infants must achieve successful oral feeding. During feeding many premature infants will suck and swallow but fail to breath resulting in dangerous physiological fluctuations. To help infants, pacing techniques can be used, in which trained caregivers intermittently pull the bottle nipple out of the infant’s mouth to encourage breathing and recovery.

Preemie-Pacer sought an innovative bottle that will address the problems that preterm infants experience during early oral feeding, allowing early feeds to be done safely and efficiently - leading hopefully to faster development and quicker discharges.

Zukun developed a solution that allows caregivers to start and stop the flow of milk, while simultaneously recording relevant feeding data to be collected and studied later. The prototype bottle meets the caregivers' needs by precisely delivering milk while being compact, lightweight, and easy to load and use.