The impact of a biomimetic nipple on infant performance during breast and bottle feeding

市面上有成百上千种瓶子，但它们都被设计成 水箱里装满了牛奶，没有管道系统，直接从乳头排入嘴里。 这个系统可以在奶牛身上找到，但人类的乳房是由一系列释放乳汁的管道组成的 来自乳房内的多个腺体。正因为如此，母乳和奶瓶喂养的机制 不同的是，婴儿在被介绍到乳房时经常会挣扎，或者相反，在婴儿被介绍到乳房后拒绝奶瓶 纯母乳喂养。这项工作的最终目标是测试和验证奶瓶-乳头系统在 一种与母乳喂养婴儿的生理和表现更匹配的动物模型 当前可用的选项。中心假设是，奶瓶乳头系统的设计是 哺乳的，就像人类和我们的动物模型猪一样，而不是像在奶牛身上发现的那样， 将比目前的奶瓶设计更符合婴儿在母乳喂养期间的神经生理学。 我们将使用一种公认的和广泛发表的婴儿喂养动物模型--猪--来测试这一点 比较母乳喂养与奶瓶喂养的生理和性能假说 以池状和导管状乳头为食。这些结果将为实施提供基础 仿生瓶的设计，将使成功和最佳的吸吮和吞咽 奶瓶喂养婴儿的生物力学研究。这将通过两个具体目标来实现：(SA1)分三个阶段 喂养方式，母乳喂养，商品奶瓶/乳头，以及仿生乳头，这些都是 细丝双极肌电在哺乳和吞咽过程中的神经运动模式和肌肉活动 (SA2)对于相同的三种模式，建立生物力学机制， 仔猪在吸吮和吞咽过程中会产生口内压力。两个人造乳头都会 具有相同的形状、硬度和相同的流量，以确保在设计上唯一的不同 这将导致性能的差异在于有没有管道。它的意义 这个项目的价值在于有可能减少与将奶瓶或乳房引入到 婴儿通过设计一种仿生乳头，并为婴儿提供相同的奶瓶喂养 生物力学方面的好处与那些用母乳喂养的人一样。本项目的创新之处在于分析和研究 基于母体乳房解剖的仿生喂养系统的验证及其与 婴儿喂养生理学。这些结果将改善婴儿的喂养结果，目前必须 由于母婴的各种病理生理而用奶瓶喂养，并朝着 奶瓶/乳头系统的优化设计，以加强婴儿喂养。

There are hundreds of varieties of commercially available bottles, yet all of them are designed as a cistern filled with milk, without a system of ducts, emptying directly into the mouth from the nipple. This system is found in cows, but the human breast is comprised of a series of ducts that release milk from multiple glands within the breast. Because of this, the mechanics of breast and bottle feeding differ, and infants often struggle when being introduced to the breast, or conversely, refuse a bottle after exclusive breastfeeding. The ultimate goal of this work is to test and validate a bottle-nipple system in an animal model that matches the physiology and performance of breastfeeding infants better than currently available options. The central hypothesis is that the design of a bottle nipple system that is lactiferous, as is true for humans and our animal model, pigs, rather than cisternic, as is found in cows, will more closely match the infant neurophysiology during breastfeeding than current bottle designs. We will use an accepted and extensively published animal model for infant feeding, pigs, to test this hypothesis by comparing feeding physiology and performance between breastfeeding with bottle feeding on cisternic and ducted nipples. These results will provide a foundation for the implementation of biomimetic bottle designs that will enable successful and optimal sucking and swallowing biomechanics for bottle fed infants. This will be accomplished through two specific aims: (SA1) In three feeding modalities, breastfeeding, commercial bottle/nipple, and biomimetic nipple, characterize the neuromotor pattern and muscle activity during suckling and swallowing using fine wire bipolar EMG in healthy infant pigs; (SA2) For the same three modalities, establish the biomechanical mechanism that infant pigs use to generate intraoral pressure during sucking and swallowing. Both artificial nipples will be the same shape, stiffness, and have the same flow rates, to ensure that the only difference in design that would lead to differences in performance lies in the presence or absence of a duct. The significance of this project lies in the potential to decrease problems associated with introducing bottles or breasts to infants through the design of a biomimetic nipple, and provide infants fed on bottles with the same biomechanical benefits as those fed on the breast. The innovation of this project is the analysis and validation of a biomimetic feeding system based on maternal breast anatomy and its interaction with infant feeding physiology. These results will improve feeding outcomes for infants which currently must be fed on bottles due to various maternal and infant pathophysiologies and take a step towards the optimal design of a bottle/nipple system to enhance infant feeding.